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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24168637">In His Element(s)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/WriterGreenReads/pseuds/WriterGreenReads'>WriterGreenReads</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead is So Done, Angst, Background Relationships, Canon-Typical Violence, Crossover, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, MORE LIKE AANGST AMIRIGHT, POV Alternating, Parental Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead, Platonic Relationships, Shinsou Hitoshi Replaces Mineta Minoru, Todoroki Shouto Needs a Hug, aang is here to kick ass and take names, actual competent avatar here, its the bnha cast you get it right, no beta we die like men</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-02 21:46:53</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>115,066</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24168637</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/WriterGreenReads/pseuds/WriterGreenReads</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"“So… one more time.” Shouta pinched the bridge of his nose, regretting both waking up this morning and possibly existence in general. “You’re the spiritual avatar of an entirely different world, and in the process of keeping the peace with said spirits, originating from your… dimension, you’ve come to our world to stop the actively malicious versions of your spirits, because our world told your world that something was wrong.”<br/>The child shrugged and grinned, looking much too cheery for someone currently in handcuffs.<br/>“Pretty much!” he chirped. “Your world spirit is really polite, too. Ours was super grumpy about all the spirits escaping, but then yours said it was ok, so long as I teach her more about them on the way back!”"</p><p> </p><p>Aang chases some renegade spirits across worldly borders and possibly makes some new friends along the way.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1984</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>4436</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>A:tla, Amazing and Bizarre Crossovers, BNHA Completed Masterpieces (10k+ words), BNHA Treasure Box, Best Fics From Across The Multiverse, Bnha Bookclub Discord Recs, Boku No Hero Academia, For Later, I Sorted Through Shit And Found Gold, Mellow's Five Star Fics, Mixed_Fics, My Time Travel Academia, Quality Fics, Suggested Good Reads, Time Travel and World Travel, Top 10%, Works Worth Rereading, blasphemi’s bnha fics, why im sleep deprived 💖✨, you_haven't_lived_if_you_haven't_read_these_masterpieces</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Avatar Whomst?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“So… one more time.” Shouta pinched the bridge of his nose, regretting both waking up this morning and possibly existence in general. “You’re the spiritual avatar of an entirely different world, and in the process of keeping the peace with said spirits, originating from your… </span>
  <em>
    <span>dimension</span>
  </em>
  <span>, you’ve come to </span>
  <em>
    <span>our </span>
  </em>
  <span>world to stop the actively malicious versions of your spirits, because </span>
  <em>
    <span>our</span>
  </em>
  <span> world told </span>
  <em>
    <span>your</span>
  </em>
  <span> world that something was wrong.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The child shrugged and grinned, looking much too cheery for someone currently in handcuffs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Pretty much!” he chirped. “Your world spirit is really polite, too. Ours was super grumpy about all the spirits escaping, but then yours said it was ok, so long as I teach her more about them on the way back!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouta wondered how hard he’d have to smash his head against the wall to knock himself out. He’d most likely be able to manage it, but the scolding from Recovery Girl probably wouldn’t be worth the effort. He settled for sharing a commiserating look with Tsukauchi, who looked like he wanted to cash in all his vacation days </span>
  <em>
    <span>right now</span>
  </em>
  <span>, because there was no way he was getting paid enough for this. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He’s telling the truth,” the detective said, voice slightly muffled from where he’d buried his face in his hands. “He hasn’t lied once since he got here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry?” the kid- Aang, he’d introduced himself as Aang- said. “I know this is a lot.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Deep breaths, Shouta.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“That covers </span>
  <em>
    <span>why</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” Shouta said flatly. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>How</span>
  </em>
  <span> is more important, however. What are you going to be doing while you’re here?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang shrugged again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The spirits weren’t very specific. I know that the main spirit I need to catch and return to the spirit world is in this area. He’s the oldest, and most dangerous. The others?” He waved a handcuffed hand from side to side in a far too nonchalant fashion. “Not as much of a problem. Most of the spirits that leaked through are harmless- if anything, they’ll probably be more scared than any people they come across.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So you’ll be capturing these- spirits?” Tsukauchi asked, leaning back in the interrogation room chair once again. Aang nodded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ve been working on my spirit bending lately, so once I catch them, I should be able to send them back no problem!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...great, ok. Anything else we should know about?” Tsukauchi asked tiredly, picking up his pencil from where he’d dropped it about ten minutes ago. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Umm. I’m the Avatar?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What does that mean?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang visibly brightened at that question and </span>
  <em>
    <span>Jesus Christ</span>
  </em>
  <span> it was like the Problem Child all over again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m the Avatar, so I can bend all the elements!” He gestured widely and Shouta internally swore because </span>
  <em>
    <span>damn it he got out of the handcuffs when did that happen.</span>
  </em>
  <span> “Water, earth, fire, and air. But I’ve also been working on the subclasses of those elements, so like sand, lightning, lava sometimes, metal if I concentrate really hard… oh! Do you have Tremor Sense too? Because my friend Toph uses it and she can </span>
  <em>
    <span>always</span>
  </em>
  <span> tell if I’m lying by listening to my insides and you said you knew if I was lying which is super cool-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Enough,</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Shouta grumbled, rapping on the table to get the kid’s attention before Tsukauchi passed out from the overload of information. Aang blinked innocently at him, resting his hand back on his lap- </span>
  <em>
    <span>in</span>
  </em>
  <span> handcuffs again, Shouta noticed. “Kid, we have no idea what you’re talking about. Can you show us, instead?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, yeah, that’d probably be more helpful, wouldn’t it.” Aang leaned back, stretching his fingers against each other. “Air is easiest.” The kid brought his hands back together in a guard position with a faint clatter from the locked handcuffs, reminiscent of a swift high block.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A gust of air rushed through the room, sending Tsukauchi’s pencil and pad flying to scatter across the carpet. Shouta blinked as his hair ruffled in the breeze, his hands instinctively going to his capture weapon at the unexpected movement. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang tilted his head as the air died down once more, taking in Shouta curiously. Shouta grimaced internally at his reaction, forcing his shoulders to relax and dropping his scarf. Tsukauchi simply shook his head and stood up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s remarkably similar to some elemental quirks we have,” he said, picking up his scattered writing utensils. “And you have multiple of these?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang nodded, finally looking away from Shouta as the detective spoke and raising his left hand carefully. A small golden flame leapt into existence, crackling merrily from between his curled fingers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A lot of people at home can bend their elements, but since I’m the Avatar, I can bend all of them.” He clenched his fist and the fire disappeared with the faintest wisp of smoke. “Is that going to cause problems for you guys?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And damn it, he looked so </span>
  <em>
    <span>earnest</span>
  </em>
  <span> and apologetic for everything already. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, not really,” Shouta admitted. “An elemental quirk would be an easy cover for you. A few of my students have them, actually. Shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Although,” he narrowed his eyes, thinking. “Can you use only one quirk- one element, for the time being?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang nodded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m an airbender first, so that’s easy enough. Why?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Because in our world, humans usually only have one quirk at their disposal,” a new and unfortunately familiar voice chimed in from behind all three of them, as the door to the interrogation room opened. Shouta barely resisted the urge to bury his own face in his hands as small paws padded their way into the room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That just leaves the question of your cover story while in this dimension,” Principal Nedzu said with </span>
  <em>
    <span>far too much</span>
  </em>
  <span> glee, in Shouta’s opinion. “I believe I have a solution.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang looked delighted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That’s it, Shouta was </span>
  <em>
    <span>definitely</span>
  </em>
  <span> asking for hazard pay later.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>Maybe he was taking too many cues from Shouta, Hizashi thought ruefully, rubbing the ache out of his shoulder as best he could with only one free hand. Three jobs was pushing it, at this point. But who was he kidding- he wouldn’t give up teaching these kids for anything, he’d known what he was signing up for with his patrols, and if he didn’t have his radio job, frankly, he’d have gone insane a while back. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He fiddled around in his pockets for the keys to the apartment, thankful that they were in the outside pocket of his jacket like usual. And if it took him an extra few seconds to realize the door was already unlocked; well, he’d had a long night and he was tired, ok? </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sho,” he called out, hanging up his jacket and muffling a yawn immediately after. “Shouta, I’m home. You still up?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Rhetorical question, mostly. It was only 2 am. If the door was unlocked, Shouta was home, and if Shouta was home on a weekend this early, then he had extra grading to do and would probably be cursing his students for the next several hours.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Voices filtered through the entryway and Hizashi paused, frowning. One was Shouta, but the other was </span>
  <em>
    <span>far</span>
  </em>
  <span> too young to be Shouta. A student, maybe? What was a student doing here so late?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hero outfit mostly ditched, he headed towards the voices in the living room, noticing the apartment was only dimly lit. Shouta was outlined against the countertop in the faint light, hair blocking most of his face in the shadows. The smaller figure appeared to be seated cross-legged on the floor, looking up at him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why is it </span>
  <em>
    <span>just</span>
  </em>
  <span> a cat?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...do you not have cats where you come from.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, we do! Catgators, and Catdeer. But this looks like a Pygmy Puma… just, smaller. Do you have Pygmy Pumas?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hizashi flipped on another light, brightening the entire kitchen in the process. The younger voice squawked in surprise, while Shouta just blinked at him, unimpressed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re home.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I am,” Hizashi agreed, taking in the teenager sitting on the tile floor of their kitchen, holding a very pleased and sleepy looking Marmalade in his arms. “And who’s this?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“This is Aang,” Shouta said shortly, and oh no Hizashi </span>
  <em>
    <span>knew</span>
  </em>
  <span> that voice. It was his husband’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>I don’t know how I got into this situation but I found another stray</span>
  </em>
  <span> voice. “He’ll be staying with us for a bit while he finishes his work.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hi,” Aang said, grinning up at him. He looked about the same age as the first years at U.A, all lanky limbs and athletic muscle. His head was shaved, highlighting the light, almost luminescent blue tattoos that curved over his skull, ending in an arrow point over his forehead. A quick glance over the rest of him confirmed that the tattoos extended to the rest of his body, including the hands currently buried in the tawny fur of one of their cats. “Master Aizawa said he lived with you. Master Yamada, right?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh, yeah, that’s me.” Hizashi shot his husband a questioning look. He had the nerve to just </span>
  <em>
    <span>shrug</span>
  </em>
  <span>, leaving him hanging out to dry with this kid’s open gaze on him. “You… you don’t have to add the ‘Master’ onto that though, kiddo. No need to be that formal if you’re gonna stay here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“ And thank you!” The kid practically leapt to his feet, gently placing Marmalade on the ground, and offering Hizashi a quick bow. Ok… that’s a wind quirk, if the puff of air gently ruffling the orange fabric of Aang’s traditional looking robes was any indication. “To both you and Master Aizawa, for letting me stay in your home. I know this must be kind of awkward. Oh- are you hurt?” That last question was directed at Hizashi with a concerned grey gaze. “Your arm.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouta instantly whipped his head around to glare at Hizashi, who held up his free hand quickly to stave off the concern. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just a bad bruise,” he assured him. “Some D-lister with a reptile quirk.” Shouta’s gaze turned exasperated, but he still reached out a hand to turn Hizashi’s shoulder into the light, showing the mottled yellows and purples that would probably bloom into a wonderful bruise in the morning. “See? Nothing to worry about.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can help? Is that… is that helpful?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouta turned to Aang, frowning. The kid still looked earnest, expression open and ulterior-motive-free. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do you mean?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well,” Aang waved his hands back and forth in the general direction of Hizashi’s banged up shoulder. “I still haven’t shown all of my bending to you yet, and you said that you should know about all of my abilities for ‘future threats assessments,” he finished, making air quotes at the final phrasing, most likely taken verbatim from something Shouta had said earlier. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Oh, there was a story to all of this that was </span>
  <em>
    <span>much</span>
  </em>
  <span> more confusing than Hizashi had initially thought and he couldn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>wait</span>
  </em>
  <span> for Shouta to explain it to him. Like sure, the man brought home strays more often than he’d like to admit, but he’d never brought home a full child before. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hizashi’s sleep deprived brain was so deep in thought comparing Aang to Ashes, their latest rescue kitten, that he almost missed it when Shouta tiredly said: “Sure, kid. Show us what you’ve got.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang beamed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>In a smooth movement, he turned back to the sink, lifting his hands gently, palms down and relaxed. Hizashi glanced briefly at the mostly full glass of water sitting on the counter before his eyes widened at the distinctly unnatural movement the water inside started to take. It rippled out in a smooth, condensed stream, floating through the few feet of air between the kid and the sink before settling in clear globules around his hands. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>So, not a wind quirk. Telekinesis, maybe?The pro hero Manual in Hosu had a similar looking water quirk, but nothing that was this controlled or refined. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Can I touch your arm?” Aang asked, nodding towards the offending appendage in question. Hizashi cocked an eyebrow at Shouta, but nodded, sitting down in one of the kitchen chairs and offering his shoulder. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Go ahead.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang flashed a smile at him before moving closer. He shivered instinctively at the touch of cold water meeting his skin, but kept a steady eye on both Aang’s work and Shouta, who was also watching intently.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A faint blue glow began to light up the room as the water surrounding Aang’s hands lit up. Hizashi watched, speechless, as Aang gently placed his hands over the bruise, brow furrowed in concentration. After a few moments, the glow shone more intensely and to his surprise, both the bruising and the bone deep ache that came with it started to fade. After maybe thirty seconds, both had completely vanished. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There,” Aang said, lifting his hands away. The water clung to his fingers still, leaving Hizashi’s arm mostly dry. Hizashi poked his arm in mild disbelief. No pain, no discoloration. Aang hummed as he brought his hands together, guiding the rest of the water back into the glass it came from.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouta strode forwards, grabbing Hizashi’s arm with careful fingers. He examined it closely, turning it this way and that, quickly running Hizashi through a number of mobility tests while Aang simply looked on politely, hands clasped behind his back. Eventually, he sat back down, giving Aang an appraising look.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You can heal.” It wasn’t a question.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, kind of?” Aang rubbed the back of his neck, looking a tad uncomfortable with the amount of scrutiny the two adults in the room were giving him. “I’m still learning, honestly. Katara is a lot better at it than me.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Huh,” Hizashi said aloud, thoughtfully rubbing his arm again. “So… do either of you feel like telling me what’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>actually</span>
  </em>
  <span> going on here?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang and Shouta both exchanged a glance.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll let you explain.” Shouta got to his feet. “I’m going to bed.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hizashi could have laughed at Aang’s panicked look.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Drama but also New Friends</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“I’m ok,” Izuku said quietly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Saying that out loud didn’t exactly make that feeling spring forth into existence, but it was the best he could do on such short notice. Kamino had left its mark. He could see it in the dark circles under Todoroki’s and Kirishima’s eyes, the way Sero and Mina tended to hug Bakugou more than usual, Bakugou’s new propensity to flinch when someone startled him, and in all the times he’d woken up gasping and sweat-stained, hands desperately outstretched </span>
  <em>
    <span>but he was too late-</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku breathed out slowly, deliberately unclenching his fingers from the unconscious fists they’d curled. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Deku?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He forced himself to grin and meet a concerned Uraraka’s gaze.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, hi, Uraraka. How was your morning?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It was alright.” She was giving him a look that probably meant he wasn’t controlling his expression as well as he thought. Behind her, Bakugou lunged across three desks to haul a snickering Kaminari up by his lapels; probably for something the electric blond had said. “I was up pretty late in the common room because I had to finish Mr. Aizawa’s essay last minute, though. How did yours turn out?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It was ok,” Izuku said absentmindedly. In the background, Kirishima was doing his best to not let his friend commit murder so early on in the day by bodily lifting him off Kaminari. The usual classroom shenanigans, honestly. “I went a few pages over the paper limit, but I really had a lot more I could have written. The Silver Age comparatively may have had less technology than we do now, not to mention far less regulations when it came to being a pro in the first place…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was nice having friends like this, Izuku decided, as Uraraka let him ramble about the finer points of his essay with a pleased and indulgent grin. Uraraka, Todoroki, Iida, Tsuyu, even Shinsou, having finally moved to the hero course with the rest of them. It was… good. A far cry from middle school. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Speaking of his friends, Iida was involving himself in the scuffle in his usual timely matter. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“-inflicting bodily harm on your classmates is unbecoming of U.A students!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“CAN IT, FOUR-EYES-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sit down and be quiet.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was ironic that Bakugou was a good alarm system for whenever Mr. Aizawa was nearby, Izuku mused as said student’s explosions abruptly died out. Kacchan, a signal for when to start good behavior? He’d hate that. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Everyone scrambled for their desks.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aizawa started the day off like he normally did, taking roll while looking as exhausted as physically possible. In fact, it was such a mundane start to a school day that it took their teacher calling an extra, unfamiliar name at the end of the usual sequence for anyone to realize something was different.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Aang.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Present!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There was a beat of silence and then, practically in unison, the entire class whipped around to stare at the boy sitting in the back row; that somehow </span>
  <em>
    <span>none of them had noticed until now</span>
  </em>
  <span>. An unfamiliar teenager wearing a U.A uniform cheerily waved back at all of them, seemingly unbothered by the variety of confused and/or violently concerned expressions now facing him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Up front, Aizawa clicked his tongue in disappointment, checking his phone.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“One minute and forty-seven seconds. Frankly, that’s pitiful. You’re all doing extra situational awareness training later this week.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sensei?” That was Yaoyorozu, tentatively raising her hand. “Who is this? Or umm, who are you, may I ask?” she addressed the new kid with her second question, looking torn between deferring to the teacher for help and instinctively being polite.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“As you heard during roll call, that’s Aang,” Aizawa said in his blandest possible voice. “Now, turn in your essays, please. I’m not paid to decipher your handwriting outside of school hours, so if I don’t get them now, I’m not grading them.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There were some confused murmurs and side-eyeing as the students complied.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Think it’s another logical ruse?” Izuku heard Ashido mutter to Kaminari. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“If it is, I’m jumping off the highest point in the training grounds,” Kaminari grumbled back.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s enough of that.” Aizawa threw a look at Kaminari, apparently having overheard. Kaminari shrank down in his seat as far as he could without actually falling out of it. “Alright. Meet me on the training grounds in fifteen minutes.” And without saying another word, their teacher picked up the stack of papers and left the room. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>New kid followed behind him a moment later, taking a moment to throw a cheeky salute at the stunned class before scurrying after Aizawa.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What the </span>
  <em>
    <span>fuck</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” said Bakugou.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And for once, everyone seemed to agree with that sentiment.</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>Aang frowned, trying out the range of motion of the new set of clothing he’d been given with some of his basic movement exercises. It was oddly light and breathable for its shape, precisely cut with a blocky geometric pattern of blue, red, and white. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He was in the middle of a one-handed handstand (for testing purposes!) when a pair of black boots entered his field of view. There was a deep sigh from somewhere around his feet.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Are you finished, new problem child?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes?” He flipped back onto his feet with a small puff of air, stretching his hands above his head to work out any kinks in his shoulders. Mr. Aizawa looked decidedly unimpressed. “I was just warming up!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The teacher didn’t argue with that, just gestured to the open hallway in front of them before starting down it himself. He was wearing the same outfit today that he’d had the first time Aang had seen him; a utilitarian black jumpsuit overlaid with his odd white scarf. Apparently this, combined with the uniform Aang was now wearing, meant they’d get to fight today? At least Aang hoped so. He was feeling restless; with the lack of spirits so far, he hadn’t gotten to use his bending in a few days. It was a new and highly unpleasant situation for him.</span>
</p>
<p><span>Once they were outside with the sun shining down upon them, Aang had to squash the temptation to immediately conjure up an air scooter and go tearing across the bright green fields. He was supposed to be </span><em><span>low</span></em> <em><span>profile</span></em><span>. Mr. Aizawa and Master Tsukauchi had impressed that on him. Air bending only, don’t share more about himself than he absolutely had to, and stick </span><em><span>precisely</span></em><span> to the story Principal Nedzu had come up with, even if he didn’t exactly understand the finer details of this world.</span></p>
<p>
  <span>Man, it was </span>
  <em>
    <span>hard</span>
  </em>
  <span> to be undercover! He already had a lot of respect for Zuko, but now he had even </span>
  <em>
    <span>more</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mr. Aizawa’s students were in the same matching uniforms he was at this point, warming up with some jogging and stretches while chatting amongst themselves. At the sight of the pair of them walking out towards them, a few heads went up and alerted the others. By the time they made it out to them, they were all expectantly lined up in front of the bleachers. Aang trailed behind Mr. Aizawa, letting his gaze wander up and down the group. He hadn’t gotten a very clear look at all of them earlier, and frankly, he was curious. Some of them were giving him looks back, apparently just as bemused by him as he was by them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang glanced down the line to where a shorter kid with green hair was chatting animatedly with his neighbor, whose own hair was split down the middle in a distinct red and white. He looked up and Aang momentarily froze, meeting the boy’s dual-toned gaze.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>If he hadn’t known there was an entire world between them, Aang would have briefly sworn that it was Zuko’s scarred face looking back at him. Then he blinked, and it was as if their eyes had never met in the first place. He shook his head slightly, unsettled. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Meanwhile, Mr. Aizawa was apparently handing out sparring partners, letting Aang put some faces to names for the first time.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“-Shoji, you’re with Kaminari, and Shinsou, you’re with Jirou. That leaves Midoryia, Todoroki, and Tokoyami.” He looked up from his folder, sweeping his gaze over the group. “You three, manage in tandem until Aang joins you.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sensei?” That was the teen with the sunshine yellow hair, Kaminari. He raised his hand sheepishly, small pricks of lightning scattering across his skin. “Does that mean you’ll tell us who he is, now?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mr. Aizawa raised an eyebrow.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Currently, he’s a temporary classmate of yours.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Uh, yeah!” Aang said hastily. “Your principal is letting me stay here until I go back to my monastery.” That was part of the story they had come up with, grounded in truth. “I’m doing some public work for my temple. In-” </span>
  <em>
    <span>what was it called</span>
  </em>
  <span> “-Tibet.” He awkwardly waved once more. “Yeah, I’m Aang.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s really cool!” one of the girls burst out, Ura- something, Aang thought. “How long are you going to be at U.A?” Aang shrugged.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t know yet. It depends on my elders.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s enough interrogation for now,” Mr. Aizawa interrupted, staving off the no-doubt numerous questions that were about to get thrown his way. “Off you go. You can socialize later.” With a few friendly smiles thrown in Aang's direction, the class dispersed across the training ground. Aang turned back to the teacher, who had sat down on one of the bleachers. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Was that ok?” he asked, maybe a little anxiously.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mr. Aizawa didn’t look up from whatever he was writing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You did fine, kid. Cover story intact.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang sighed in relief and sat down next to him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So, now what?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A pen tapped Aang’s knee before pointing back out to the sparring pairs spreading across the grass.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Watch them for a bit, and get acquainted with their quirks.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Normally, Aang hated waiting, but he’d </span>
  <em>
    <span>gladly</span>
  </em>
  <span> take the chance to watch these new elements in action before trying to spar with them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There were explosions as a backdrop that reminded him of his few encounters with “Combustion Man.” Tall and serious- Iida, he remembered,  had some kind of machinery that protruded from his lower legs, letting him get up to incredible speeds. One girl yanked an entire staff out of the skin of her exposed stomach and used it to bludgeon her partner, who flinched away before a small flock of birds dive bombed her in retaliation at a signal from his outstretched hand. And clashing against a large, falcon-like shadow and a flash of green sparks, ice crackled in gleaming chunks against the blue sky as Todoroki swapped between both ice and fire with a mostly blank expression.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang leaned forwards, hungrily taking it all in.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ok.” It must have been about ten minutes before Mr. Aizawa spoke again, but it felt much shorter. “Now tell me what you see.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Huh?” Aang made a questioning noise in the back of his throat, glancing up at the taller man. “I thought I wasn’t actually going to be one of your students?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You’re not. This isn’t for you.” Mr. Aizawa gestured towards the sparring students out on the field, a riot of color and energy clashing wildly. “With your own combat judgement- what do you see?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang tilted his head, thinking as he watched once more. With such a variety of tactics and abilities, it was hard to pin down anything overly specific from just this first glance. But still...</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“They’re all way too tense.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mr. Aizawa’s expression didn’t change, but Aang thought he could detect a hint of approval from the teacher.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“In what way?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well…” Aang frowned thoughtfully. After watching some more blows get thrown around for a moment he hopped up and carefully slid into a basic airbending stance, mentally comparing his form against the other kids. “Most of them are distancing themselves from their bending. Ah, quirks, right? They’re treating them like things to be </span>
  <em>
    <span>used</span>
  </em>
  <span>, not another aspect of themselves. Like the red one-” he pointed towards the loud boy with bright, spiky hair the color of fire lilies. Aang dropped into the wider stance the boy was favoring, briefly following along with a series of punches he was aiming at his partner, Asui. Just as Aang expected, she ducked under his blows with ease. He </span>
  <em>
    <span>didn’t </span>
  </em>
  <span>expect the long, pink tongue that she immediately whipped out to yank her partner off his feet, but was thrilled regardless. Maybe she was part frog-squirrel? </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang </span>
  <em>
    <span>loved</span>
  </em>
  <span> this world.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He can make himself like stone, right? My friend Toph earthbends herself like that if she doesn’t have a lot of space or material available to block with. And his core is good. Super solid. But even earthbenders need to move </span>
  <em>
    <span>with</span>
  </em>
  <span> their element.” Aang quickly stomped through the first few steps of an earthbending kata before looking up at Aizawa again. “He’s relying too much on being able to take the hit- even stone breaks, eventually. He’s gonna get hurt.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There was an interested flicker in Mr. Aizawa’s eyes, like a glint of Mai whenever a new blade caught her attention. The teacher nodded, folding his arms and looking back out towards Fire Lily, who was peeling himself off the ground at this point with some apologetic assistance from his partner.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mr. Aizawa reminded him a lot of Mai, actually. An older, scruffier Mai. They both had the same serious, dark eyes and deadpan expression. Aang liked that. The look he gave his students- it was the same one Mai gave to her little brother when she thought no one else was looking.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You’re right. Kirishima relies on his quirk far too much. That’s an area he needs to work on.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There was a yelp followed by a louder explosion than usual. Sero, the kid who had been throwing sticky bandages from his own arms earlier, tumbled across the yard, fire and smoke nipping at his heels as another student tore after him, all pale golden hair and sharp features. Mr. Aizawa just huffed in exasperation before turning back to Aang. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Out of all of the students- who would you say is most in tune with their quirk, and who’s distancing themselves the most?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, that one’s easy!” Aang pointed to the south end of the field. One of the taller kids had a long, fluffy tail like a winged lemur. At the moment, he was using it to dodge out of the way of his partner’s attacks. The girl almost looked like some of the spirits Aang had come across in the Spirit Realm with her small, curved horns and pink skin. She was also getting increasingly frustrated as the fight wore on, tossing her liquid element at him in wide, sloppy arcs that he consistently danced around. “I forgot his name, but he’s really smooth! It might be because he can focus on only his tail instead of another element, but he’s really aware of his own body.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As if hearing Aang’s comment, the kid leapt up after a particularly graceful roll, lashing out with two precise kicks. His partner squeaked. He pounced on her imbalance as she stumbled backwards, dropping into a low spin and whipping his tail around to connect solidly with the back of her knees. She collapsed with a shriek of surprise and he finished his circle of momentum by shifting his weight onto his back foot, arms up and ready for another incoming attack.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang hopped a bit in place and grinned, resisting the urge to immediately jump in and mimic the move the other boy had just done. He bet he could substitute his staff in place of the tail…</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ojiro does have the most martial arts experience,” Mr. Aizawa said, freezing Aang in place with a pointed look. Aang </span>
  <em>
    <span>eeped</span>
  </em>
  <span> and stood still as best he could. “From his records, he’s been training at his family’s dojo since he was little. Interesting. And the least attuned?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang sobered at that question, his eyes flicking back to the main body of students. The initial clash had petered out. It looked like some of the kids were taking a quick break, chests heaving as they gratefully used the unofficial pause in sparring to catch their breath before throwing themselves back in.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’d say it’s between those two,” Aang finally said. He flicked his fingers at two boys, the lightning-wielding one from earlier and the one he’d been eyeing because of his similarity to another scarred firebender Aang knew. “Kaminari and Todoroki, right?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mr. Aizawa nodded, expression unchanging. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Go on.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Uh, right.” Aang bit his lip. He wasn’t used to sharing his thoughts this much. “Well, I actually know these elements. Lightning is really hard to control, and really, really easy to hurt yourself with.” His hands drifted to his chest unconsciously, tweaking the unfamiliar fabric in a nervous twist. “Kaminari isn’t controlling his element; it’s controlling him.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mr. Aizawa watched him impassively, giving a small nod to continue when Aang faltered. He took a deep breath and traced the flowing pattern Zuko had taught him years ago in front of himself, the first two fingers on each hand carefully extended. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span> “When you bend lightning, you guide it through your chi to keep it away from fragile areas like your heart or your head. Kaminari… isn’t doing that.” Aang dropped his hands, uncomfortably rubbing the back of his neck. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But Mr. Aizawa just nodded, directing his gaze to where his students were picking up the pace once again. Aang could see Kaminari from here, already unsteady and dizzy-looking as sparks flickered along the length of his body.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And Todoroki?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang winced.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Todoroki is afraid of his own fire.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mr. Aizawa let out an almost imperceptible sigh.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’d hoped it would be a little less obvious than that. Yes, he is.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Oh, Aang didn’t like the sound of that. That sounded suspiciously like Mr. Aizawa was </span>
  <em>
    <span>sad</span>
  </em>
  <span> about something. Todoroki’s scarred face flashed across Aang’s thoughts for a moment and he grimaced, not sure he liked where this similarity was going.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Is… is he ok?” Aang asked in a small voice.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span> There was silence, disturbed only by the clashing sounds in front of them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t know,” Mr. Aizawa finally said. He sounded tired. “But I hope he lets someone help him.” He picked up his folder again, tapping the pen methodically against the sheets of paper. “Go join Tokoyami and spar with him until the end of class. He’s the one with Dark Shadow.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang nodded and dashed off, away from the sudden solemnity and unease.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And well, he thought as he made his way over to the trio, containing spirits might happen to be his main purpose for being in this world, but surely he had time to do a little meddling in the meantime?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Because Aang couldn’t just stand by and see people hurting. Not when there was something he could do about it.</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I mean I'm writing this for me mostly but thanks for all the love guys!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Bending is Still Different than Quirks</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>They were </span>
  <em>
    <span>cold.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Everything was cold. Where was the life? The flame? Their embers?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Where were they?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The ground was smooth and too light and </span>
  <em>
    <span>cold</span>
  </em>
  <span> and made clicky clack sounds as they scuttled over it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Heat? Warmth?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Their fire was so low. They cried out softly, all six legs curling up under them. Needed to be warm. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A noise! What was this?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A figure above them, bright fuzzy feet passing by, unobservant of their plight. The only movement during this time of no sun. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A person!</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Warmth!</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The person stopped before long, humming to herself high above them. They clambered forwards, claws sinking into the not-pelt on her feet before scrambling up skin they couldn’t see. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Warm!</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They dove inside. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She had fire inside. But not enough. She coughed, and they felt her lungs respond, corporeal and fleshy, wheezing in and out. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Not enough warmth.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And so they settled in, stoking the fire in this body.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Soon they would be warm again.</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>“Do you think Hagakure is ok?” Midoriya said worriedly, tossing Shouto’s water bottle over to him. Shouto caught it one-handed, nodding his thanks and passing Tokoyami’s to him when the other teen walked over. “I feel bad leaving her all alone today.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I doubt our classmate will embrace the throes of death over a simple cold,” Tokoyami remarked with his usual pragmatism. “Most likely, she’ll still be sleeping by the time we get back to the dorms.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Their resident invisible classmate had woken up this morning with a fever and a debilitating headache. Given the simple fact that all her friends had been able to tell she was sick despite not being able to actually </span>
  <em>
    <span>see</span>
  </em>
  <span> her, she’d been given a clear for the day by Aizawa and promptly passed out on the common room couch under a ludicrous amount of blankets.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m sure she’s fine,” Shouto agreed. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya still looked unconvinced.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m gonna bring her some tea and my notes from today when we get back,” he said decidedly, frowning slightly as he tapped his chin with his water bottle. He brightened after a moment, looking across the field. “Oh! What do you guys think of Aang?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouto followed his gaze. The teenager was sitting next to Aizawa on the far bleachers. From this distance he couldn’t hear anything, but it looked like he was talking to the teacher, hopping up after a brief discussion and easily falling into some sort of martial arts form. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We haven’t exactly interacted with him much,” he pointed out. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“True.” Midoriya pulled one of his wrists up, wincing slightly as he stretched out the tight muscle of his forearm. “I’ve never actually met a Tibetan monk before. What do you think his tattoos mean? Or are they a by-product of his quirk? It doesn’t look like he has a physical one but maybe they... I don’t know, peel off or something?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Why would they do that?” Shouto asked, confused. Midoriya threw his hands up.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t know! Just a thought.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He’s coming this way,” Tokoyami remarked. Dark Shadow peered over his shoulder and warbled softly in affirmation. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Sure enough, the cheerful teen was jogging their way at a surprisingly quick pace. Upon seeing them all looking his way, he briefly waved at the three of them, putting on a bit more speed the last few meters to zoom to a standstill besides them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hi!” Aang said in greeting. The monk casually stuck his hands in his pockets, clearly not winded at all from his quick sprint across the field. “Mr. Aizawa said I should join you guys until the end of class. You’re Tokoyami, right?” he said, addressing the shortest member of their group with that question.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Tokoyami nodded.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Wow, you’re really handsome!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouto saw Midoriya duck his head with a strangled snort as their avian friend blinked, cheek feathers puffing up in his own equivalent of a blush.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I… what?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was rare to hear Tokoyami so flustered. Dark Shadow curled over his back, curiously gazing at Aang, who was beaming and apparently unaware of the confusion he’d caused with his innocuous statement. Behind him, Shouto heard Midoriya’s snickering turn into a slight wheeze as Tokoyami just stared at the monk, baffled.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Damn, Shouto had to be careful or he might start to like this newcomer.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah! Your feathers are really pretty. Like…” Aang tapped his chin thoughtfully before brightening again. “Oh! You look like a falcon spirit! They’re supposed to be really lucky where I come from. And you even have your own spirit form!” The monk tilted his head to get a good look at Dark Shadow, who had extended himself further from his host as his interest in the conversation grew. “That’s super cool.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dark Shadow preened at the attention. Midoriya was starting to sound like a malfunctioning engine as his forehead pressed into Shouto’s shoulder, shaking ever so slightly with barely-contained laughter. Shouto blandly patted his friend’s curly head in consolation.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m Todoroki and this is Midoriya,” he said, feeling that Tokoyami deserved a bit of mercy. “Aang, correct?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s me!” Aang grinned, the full force of his personality turning to Shouto instead of Tokoyami, who was starting to look like a plush toy with how much his feathers were fluffed up. “I’m really excited to be able to train with you guys! You’re all super talented.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We’re glad to have you,” Midoriya said, finally controlling his voice enough to speak again. “Did Sensei say who you’re sparring with?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, Tokoyami here.” Aang gave him a thumbs up. “You ready?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ah… yes.” Tokoyami coughed, adjusting his jacket. “Let’s go, Dark Shadow.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya started snickering again the instant the other duo were sufficiently far away. He set his water bottle back down alongside the others.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Poor Tokoyami.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“His reputation will never be the same,” Shouto agreed solemnly, not exactly sure why that sent his friend into silent cackles once more.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Do… do you mind if we watch them for a second?” Midoriya asked, brushing his bangs out of his eyes after straightening up. “I’m really curious what his quirk is like.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Are you suggesting we watch our classmates instead of working on bettering ourselves?” Shouto cocked an eyebrow in Midoriya’s direction. His friend grinned, impish.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I won’t tell Iida if you won’t.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He huffed. Midoriya was his own force of nature at times. But he’ll admit, he was curious as well.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Very well.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He may as well use this opportunity to stretch- his left arm was still bothering him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It also appeared that the two of them were not the only ones interested. He could see Kirishima and Asui close by, slowing down slightly as they threw the odd glance in their direction. Kaminari was leaning over, hands on his knees, blatantly not paying attention to an exasperated Satou behind him in favor of watching the new sparring pair. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang gave Tokoyami a short bow with his closed fists pressed gently together before hopping back into a loose stance. Tokoyami shrugged in a close approximation. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Then Dark Shadow reared up and plunged towards Aang with a haunting shriek. Shouto almost winced in sympathy before it hit- he’d been on the receiving end of that a few times and it was never a pleasant sensation.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But it never landed. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There was a puff of wind that ruffled through everyone in the vicinity as Aang rocketed upwards from a standing jump. Shouto could see a delighted flash of white teeth from this distance before Aang flipped backwards, softly landing a good fifteen meters away from where he’d started in a graceful crouch. From there on, it was controlled chaos. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>If Tokoyami was surprised, it didn’t show on his face as Dark Shadow continued his attack. Aang danced around the tangible quirk, whirling and leaping where it was required, air flowing easily around his form. He was like a miniature whirlwind of his own creation, fluid and unpredictable.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And what’s more, he was having </span>
  <em>
    <span>fun</span>
  </em>
  <span>. His face remained clear, expression open and cheery throughout the entirety of their match.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Frankly, it was baffling.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>After maybe a minute of this scuffle, Aang darted closer to Tokoyami, arms outstretched. He dove over Dark Shadow’s latest claw strike, cartwheeling midair to land behind him. As the other teen jerked at the unexpected positioning, Aang lunged forwards and grabbed the fabric of Tokoyami’s jacket, right between his shoulder blades. He finished the move by twirling on his back foot as gracefully as a professional dancer, sweeping his legs out from under him and pinning Tokoyami to the ground, still lightly grasping the back of his uniform.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The whole maneuver was smooth, well-executed, and finished before most of the viewers knew it had even begun.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya was mumbling up a storm beside him, but Shouto simply ran through the match in his mind one more time. He frowned slightly, disconcerted.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang hadn’t thrown a single punch. And from his untouched appearance, his opponent hadn’t managed to land a single blow on him either. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouto </span>
  <em>
    <span>knew</span>
  </em>
  <span> his classmates' competence in combat. Tokoyami was one of the strongest in class 1-A; a title not taken lightly given the variety of powerful quirks his classmates boasted. For a sparring match to end like this? It was… unsettling, to say the least. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang extended a hand to Tokoyami, who rolled over and gave him a baffled look. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That was really good,” Aang said. Tokoyami accepted the hand and let Aang pull him back to his feet. “You have a really awesome power! So Dark Shadow is a part of you, right? How far can he go?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What do you think?” Shouto asked quietly, turning to Midoriya as the other two started a conversation on the finer points of Dark Shadow’s abilities. Midoriya startled out of his mumbling, eyes wide as he turned back to Shouto.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Wind quirk, I’m pretty sure. It was really interesting the way he applied it; he didn’t focus much on the offensive abilities like I would normally expect from an elemental quirk user. Instead he seemed to control the air pressure around himself? It gave him like, a buffer for dodging most of Dark Shadow’s attacks. Pretty cool!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouto hummed, glancing back over to the student in question. He was in the middle of an enthusiastic twirl, apparently showing an attentive Tokoyami some sort of move he’d used earlier. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It certainly is interesting.”</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>Aang watched Todoroki and Midoriya out of the corner of his eye. A mass of black slashed by his face and he leaned backwards, letting his airbending carry him out of range before spinning back around.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Of course, he meant no offense to Tokoyami! He was really strong and pretty and had an awesome power, but after a while he </span>
  <em>
    <span>was</span>
  </em>
  <span> kind of predictable. He also wasn’t trying to actively murder Aang, which was a nice change. But that made this a bit of a lower stakes fight than Aang was used to. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Which meant he could sort of pay attention to an entirely different fight close by.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya had some sort of verdant energy that surrounded him and crackled along his limbs whenever he moved. From what Aang could see between flashes of his own training, he wasn’t quite used to his abilities. Even though he used his legs for the majority of his strikes, his upper body was tense and stiff, like he was purposely keeping the top half of himself still and out of the fight. Maybe it was an old injury holding him back.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Todoroki was an entirely different, and sadly much more familiar problem. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang had also been afraid of his fire for a time. He knew what it looked like.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The firebender- icebender? Could he even be called that?- was distancing himself from his own fire so much that he was seriously unbalanced. Oh he was using it, technically. It was very effective. But he wasn’t… </span>
  <em>
    <span>bending</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was odd.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang conjured an air scooter as he dropped down, using the sudden burst of speed to zip around Tokoyami. His opponent whipped around to keep Aang in view, looking vaguely startled even with Aang’s unfamiliarity of his features. Aang halted his momentum briefly to get his feet back under him and leapt skywards once more, letting the air buffet him and slow his descent.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There- Todoroki flung his left hand out in front of him like he was throwing something and a wall of flames tore out towards Midoriya. It was wild and uncoordinated, with little correlation between his physical stance and energy of the attack. Aang frowned. He knew that firebending came from within, more than any other bending form, but still. This was </span>
  <em>
    <span>sloppy</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Todoroki alternated slowly between his elements and was able to conjure terrifyingly enormous masses of ice from </span>
  <em>
    <span>just </span>
  </em>
  <span>the water in the air around him. His fire tempered that. Aang could feel it raising the temperature of both his body and the surrounding air.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span> There was plenty of power here, but not a lot of control. It was like... whoever had taught him had focused on maximizing the pure elemental output of his bending over anything else.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang wanted a </span>
  <em>
    <span>word</span>
  </em>
  <span> with them. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ah. From the look of the things, Mr. Aizawa was signaling the fact that class was over. Aang blew out a breath, crossing his arms as he sank back down to earth. This uniform didn’t move the way he was used to his airbender robes doing. It caught him off guard a few times, which just made him feel a little silly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He missed his robes. Apparently they weren’t common enough here to justify him wearing them all the time. He supposed they </span>
  <em>
    <span>were</span>
  </em>
  <span> a bit distinctive.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Tokoyami!” he called out as his feet met grass once more. The other boy looked in his direction and he offered him a quick bow. “Thank you for training with me.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Tokoyami tilted his head, an unidentifiable expression crossing his face before he nodded and returned the gesture.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It was my pleasure.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As he made his way over to where Mr. Aizawa was standing, Aang heard his name get called. He paused in his step, looking around for the source before landing on Midoriya heading his way, Todoroki in tow. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey,” Midoriya greeted once he got close enough. “Are you staying with us the whole day?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m not sure.” Aang glanced back at their teacher. Mr. Aizawa had his glowing device in his hands (what was it called- a cell?) and looked preoccupied for the moment. “I’m supposed to stay with Mr. Aizawa for the most part. Do you guys know where he’s going next?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We have English with Present Mic,” Todoroki said. “I believe Sensei has a break period at this time.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Your quirk is super interesting!” Midoriya burst out. From the vaguely exasperated look that crossed Todoroki’s face at Midoriya’s barely-controlled enthusiasm, this must be a fairly common occurrence. “You manipulate the air around you by moving, right? Is there a specific correlation between the martial arts forms you use and the amount of control you have? Does it only apply to oxygen or nitrogen or does it extend to  baseline gaseous forms of matter as well?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Midoriya,” Todoroki said quietly, faintly amused. “Breathe.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, sorry.” Midoriya took in the blank look on Aang’s face and ruefully rubbed the back of his head. “Bad habit. I just really like quirks, you know?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Uh, it's ok?” Aang tapped his fingers together a little awkwardly, not sure how to deal with this line of conversation. “I’ve just- never really had anyone ask me about my airbending before. I’m not sure exactly how helpful I’d be.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Plus, I’m not supposed to give out more information on my bending than absolutely necessary, but I can’t exactly say that, can I.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Problem child.” That was Mr. Aizawa, right on time. “Are you harassing people with quirk tangents again?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya looked guilty for a split second. Aang’s eyes widened as he made the connection that had been bugging him for the last few days. He whipped back around, pointing an accusing finger at Midoriya.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Wait, so </span>
  <em>
    <span>you’re</span>
  </em>
  <span> the problem child Mr. Aizawa talks about?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Todoroki bit his lip and glanced away as Midoriya pouted in indignation. Mr. Aizawa simply tilted his head skywards, pinching the bridge of his nose.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m not </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> bad,” Midoriya huffed, crossing his arms. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes, you are,” Todoroki said, deadpan. Midoriya gaped at him and immediately smacked his arm, mock offended.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Betrayed by one of my closest friends!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“This explains a lot,” Aang said to no one in particular. Mr. Aizawa threw him a look before leveling his stern gaze at the two other students.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Don’t you two have class to get to?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Right! Sorry, we were just asking Aang what he was doing next.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He’s supposed to shadow me for the day.” The teacher checked his cell again and grimaced. “However- I have a matter I have to attend to. Aang, I can’t bring you with me on this.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Is it…?” Aang’s heart leapt into his throat, hoping Mr. Aizawa understood what he was trying to ask without having to spill any secrets with the other kids around. He immediately shook his head, seemingly understanding Aang’s unspoken question.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No, I don’t think it has anything to do with your friends.” Aang relaxed a hair. “But it’s an underground matter that I can’t leave alone. Which means you need to stay somewhere until I can get back.” Mr. Aizawa rubbed his temple, frustrated. “I don’t know how long this will take.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sensei?” That was Midoriya drawing everyone’s attention once more. He had retrieved his bag in the interim and was looking between the two of them with a keen expression. “I was going to head back to the dorms before my next class to check up on Hagakure and make sure she’s ok. Maybe Aang could stay there? It’s pretty safe, since you’ve got all the new security measures in place.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang looked to the teacher for clarification. The adult hesitated, seemingly weighing the decision in his mind. After a moment he sighed, putting his device back in his pocket. He pulled out a pen and a small piece of paper, scribbling something quickly before handing the slip to Midoriya.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ok- Aang, go with Midoriya. Midoriya, go </span>
  <em>
    <span>straight</span>
  </em>
  <span> to the dorms and then to your next class. Give that to Mic, it explains the situation. Aang, stay at the dorms until I get back. Unless someone is actively dying, </span>
  <em>
    <span>don’t leave the building</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Got it?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang nodded dutifully. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Good.” Mr. Aizawa adjusted his scarf. “I’ll see you soon then. Hopefully.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And with that, the four of them parted ways.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So…” Midoriya turned back to Todoroki as they made their way to the lockers. “I’ll see you at class?” Todoroki inclined his head.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey Aang, how do you like U.A so far?”</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>You guys are all super sweet and cool ;~;</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Spiritual Advice, or Just Advice From a Spirit</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>How does it feel knowing ya'll are the funniest people alive? Seriously, your comments are killing me.<br/>Also, I'm sticking with English honorifics because I had no clue how to smorgasbord A:TLA's title systemic with English by way of Japanese.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Aang was odd, Izuku decided. Maybe a good version of it, but odd nonetheless.</p><p>When he mentioned that he was a Tibetan monk, he hadn’t been sure exactly what to expect. After all, he was wearing one of their uniforms, something that Aang had sheepishly admitted had been at the behest of the principal himself, probably in an attempt to get him to fit in more.The shaved head certainly fit into his expectations, odd tattoos besides, and so did the calm, self-assured way Aang carried himself. </p><p>But he didn’t expect him to be so <em> cheerful </em>.</p><p>“Who’s Hagakure?” Aang was currently asking. They’d both changed back into their school uniforms and were making their way back to the dorms at a brisk walking pace. Aang tugged slightly on his tie, looking vaguely uncomfortable in probably unfamiliar clothing. “A classmate of yours?”</p><p>“Yeah, she’s in 1-A with the rest of us,” Izuku said, hoisting his bag higher onto his shoulder, checking his folder of notes from his first two classes. “She’s sick today. That’s why we had an odd number for training- normally we have all twenty.”</p><p>“Wow… and all of you can do different things?”</p><p>Izuku blinked at the phrasing. Aang sounded genuinely awed at that simple fact.</p><p>“I mean, yeah. Quirks are unique to everyone.” He tilted his head as they walked, narrowing his eyes at a distracted Aang. “Your monastery must be pretty isolated, huh?”</p><p>“Mmm, yeah, it is,” Aang agreed absentmindedly, clearly still thinking. “Lots of mountains. Open air. Trees.”</p><p>Something was off here. He couldn’t exactly say what yet, but still. Izuku had studied quirks pretty much as long as he’d been alive. He knew that he tended to know a lot more information about them than your average person.</p><p>But surely… everyone knew the basics of quirk existence… right? </p><p>Being himself, Izuku bit his lip, bid his time, and changed the subject.</p><p>“What did you think of Tokoyami?”</p><p>Aang immediately brightened and latched onto that new topic. His enthusiasm made Izuku blink and miss a step, barely managing to not fall on his face.</p><p>Wait, was this what everyone else felt like whenever he mumbled? ...honestly it wasn’t that bad, he didn’t know what they were complaining about.</p><p>Their relatively safe conversation continued up to the dorm’s entrance and into the cooler space of the common room area. Sure enough, Tokoyami was right. There was still a Hagakure-shaped blob under the four blankets she’d burrowed into this morning.</p><p>“Hagakure?” Izuku called out, setting his backpack down on the squashy blue armchair that Shinsou had claimed as his secondary bed. Or maybe his primary bed, given the amount of time he spent in it.</p><p>From the groan slash grumble that emerged from the depths of the fabric sausage on the couch, Hagakure was mostly present and likely still not feeling too well. He could see the blankets shift a bit around her invisible form as she sat up, the loose fabric of an old t-shirt peeking its way out into the open.</p><p>“Mido?” Her voice was tired and scratchy. “What’re you doing back here?”</p><p>“Mr. Aizawa gave me permission to make sure you’re ok before my next class.” He gave her a smile of reassurance as he dug through his bag. “I brought the notes from class and the homework. Do you need any cold meds or anything?”</p><p>Hagakure slumped back down.</p><p>“Don’t think so.” He could see the indent of her head on the pillow as she apparently smushed her face into it, muffling her words slightly. “I feel funny. And really cold. ‘M real cold, Mido.”</p><p>“That really sucks, I’m sorry.” Izuku winced sympathetically. Hagakure was a little exaggerated sometimes, a social adaptation thanks to her naturally invisible state, but she rarely complained. She must really feel terrible. “I’ll bring you some water. Oh, and this is Aang,” he said, finally remembering the secondary reason he’d come back to the dorms. He turned to catch sight of the other boy, who hadn’t said a word since Hagakure had moved. “Aang, this is Hagakure.”</p><p>Aang was staring at the couch where Hagakure was, brow slightly furrowed. Izuku grimaced internally, hoping the monk wasn’t going to say anything too awkward. Right, he hadn’t said she was invisible, had he.</p><p>But Aang just blinked after a long moment, intense expression melting to something lighter and more expected from his personality.</p><p>“Hi, it’s nice to meet you.” He lightly pressed his fists together and slightly bowed in greeting. “I’m staying with Master Aizawa for a while, but he had something really urgent come up.” He glanced up with hooded eyes, something unreadable in his gaze. “Is it ok with you if I stay here until he comes back?”</p><p>“...yeah.” Hagakure sounded vaguely confused, which was a fair reaction, honestly. “‘M just gonna sleep.” There was a sigh and the blankets nestled in even further. A sleepy mutter that was probably meant to be along the lines of “nice to meet you” wafted out a few moments later.</p><p>Izuku turned back to Aang after setting a glass of water and an apple on the table within easy reach of his sick friend. Aang was still intently watching Hagakure, back straight and poised, like she was a particularly difficult math problem he hadn’t realized he needed to solve.</p><p>“I didn’t know you were staying <em> with </em> Mr. Aizawa,” he said, bemused. Aang’s eyes flicked back to him momentarily.</p><p>“It was kinda necessary,” he replied after a moment, shrugging. The monk dropped the tension he’d been carrying in his shoulders, simply looking around the dorms with a curious eye like that was what he’d meant to be doing all along. “It was really nice of him to let me, though.”</p><p>Izuku picked his bag up again and looked Aang over once more.</p><p>“I have to get going. You sure you’ll be ok?” he asked, not <em> suspiciously </em> per say, but maybe with a bit more paranoia than usual. Aizawa had essentially vouched for Aang, but it still felt weird leaving a sick classmate with someone he didn’t know that well.</p><p>Aang nodded, fully serious.</p><p>“My friend is a healer,” he said frankly. “A… combat medic, I guess you could call her. I’ve been training with her a lot recently and if anything gets bad, I’ll know how to deal with it.” He flashed a small, knowing smile at Izuku. “It’s ok. Your friend doesn’t have anything to fear from me.”</p><p>Izuku wilted, just a little, from that.</p><p>“It’s not that I don’t trust you or anything-”</p><p>“No, you just care about your friends a lot and don’t want to see them hurt,” Aang said, mercifully cutting off his awkward backpedaling. He patted him on the shoulder, grin wider now. “I get it. Don’t worry.”</p><p>Izuku blew out a breath, feeling a bit relieved.</p><p>“Okay. Now I really do have to get going or Sensei will literally murder me later and make sure my body is never found.”</p><p>Aang just gives him a supremely unhelpful thumbs up. </p><hr/><p>Midoriya left fairly quickly, but not before giving both Aang and Hagakure concerned looks in what he probably thought was a subtle manner. Honestly, Aang had seen <em> Katara </em>disguise her expressions better than that.</p><p>Aang had kicked off his shoes briefly after walking into the dorms. Midoriya had called it “Heights Alliance.” They lived here while school was in session, apparently. </p><p>He pressed the bare heel of his foot into the cool surface of the floor beneath him, eyes loosely slitted as he sent out his Tremor Sense. Yup, the invisible girl was fast asleep. He could hear the soft wheezing of her breath, feel the vibrations from her struggling lungs, and see…</p><p>And see the small glow of a spirit nestled neatly above her ribs.</p><p>“Well, this is new,” he muttered under his breath.</p><p>Aang, along with his friends, had encountered many more spirits since the Hundred Years War had ended. Some had been friendly, harmless, or just lost in the Material World. Some had been… harder to deal with.</p><p>Serves him right for thinking he knew anything remotely tangible about spirits. Maybe some of his predecessors would know better-</p><p>But then again, he hadn’t exactly spoken with any of them since the comet had hit.</p><p>Aang shook his head, dismissing those melancholy thoughts with a frown. He had a job to do, in the here and now. He didn’t need a reappearance of his biggest doubts when he already had a massive spirit jailbreak on his hands.</p><p>Just… later. He would deal with that later.</p><p>This didn’t look like a spirit possession. He was <em> reasonably </em> sure that couldn’t happen. Mostly.</p><p>Ok, maybe he <em> hoped </em> it couldn’t happen.</p><p>Aang got as close as he dared, dropping back onto his haunches to get a good look at the little red spirit somehow merged with the inside of Hagakure’s torso. </p><p>“Hey there, little guy.” He kept his voice as quiet as he could. It would be super awkward if Hagakure woke up on him like this. “I’m here to take you home.”</p><p>The spirit stirred, and Hagakure groaned in response to that, moving slightly. </p><p>This close, Aang could actually feel the heat wafting off Hagakure. He stuck his hand out to hover over where he thought her forehead would be, alarmed by the temperature. She’d said she was cold, but she was <em> burning up. </em> And Aang has dealt with a certain firebender while he was sick enough times to know that this was <em> too hot </em> for a human to handle. </p><p>If he didn’t get the spirit out of her soon, she’d die.</p><p>Aang squinted, tilted his head to get a better look at the spirit. They’d raised their head under his scrutiny, glossy black eyes cautiously staring up at him. </p><p>They were small, smaller than Momo, and vaguely reptilian, with six stubby legs and soft frills in a dark ochre that faded to gold along the edges. They vaguely resembled some of the koi-salamanders he’d seen in the Swamps down south. An internal glow pulsed gently in time with Hagakure’s breathing, but it was low and feeble, almost like it could flicker out any moment.</p><p>Just like that, a spark of understanding lit up in Aang’s mind.</p><p>“You’re <em> cold </em> ,” he whispered in realization. “That’s why you’re in Hagakure. <em> That’s </em> why she has this crazy fever. You’re trying to warm up.”</p><p>The spirit blinked rapidly, lids sliding vertically across their eyes.</p><p>“Cold…” they hissed in return, a dry, crackling sound. “Where are the flames?”</p><p>Aang did a precursory glance around the room before checking more thoroughly with his Tremor Sense to verify they were indeed alone before turning back to the spirit. He exhaled slowly, letting steam swirl in front of him as he gently cupped his hands together. Fire bloomed from his palms, strong but controlled in this small space.</p><p>The spirit gasped. They bent their front two legs to get a better look before scuttling forwards, a faint golden sheen appearing where they slipped through Hagakure’s skin before veritably launching themselves into Aang’s grasp.</p><p>“Waaaarm,” they cooed, stamping around in a gleeful circle. The flames licked over their body and the glow inside them steadied in response, apparently sated by the firebending. Aang grinned. </p><p>“Glad someone’s happy.” He stood up and took a few steps back to get more space. “I’m the Avatar, by the way. Nice to meet you. I’m going to send you back home now, hold on.”</p><p>Aang closed his eyes, carefully pulling up the memory his World Spirit had shown him when he’d passed over. He swapped the spirit to his left hand as he <em> pulled </em> with his right, twisting his fingers through the threads of reality.</p><p>A familiar blue reflected through his closed eyelids, signifying a successful passage. </p><p>“There.” Aang blinked a few times, shaking out his hand. He was always surprised how tiring that part was. He'd sleep soundly tonight.</p><p>The spirit in his hand peered curiously at the glow in space.</p><p>“It’s ok,” he reassured them. He cupped them in both hands once more and held them up to the light. “Hop on through, and you’ll be back in the Spirit World.”</p><p>The fire spirit fixed him with a steady gaze. Their frills flared as they cocked their head, intent.</p><p>“The General is angry with you, Avatar,” they said, soft and calm. “He will bring you to turmoil.”</p><p>Then, satisfied by whatever they saw and imparted, they clambered daintily to the edge of his fingers, coiled themselves, and leapt.</p><p>Aang stood there, frozen, staring at the light. Eventually, he reached out once more and pulled the energy closed. </p><p>So that was the powerful spirit who needed to be found.</p><p>He’d hoped… a foolish, selfish hope maybe, that he’d seen the last of him.</p><p>Looks like he’d have to face his regrets sooner than he’d thought.</p><hr/><p>Shouta didn’t waste time with pleasantries.</p><p>He wasn’t a police officer or a detective. Underground heroes walked in the same circles, true, but they were never in charge of actual investigations themselves. If Tsukauchi was calling him over a case, it was directly tied to him somehow. And that was never good news.</p><p>“Who is it,” he opened with the moment he walked into the room.</p><p>“Hello to you too.” Tsukauchi didn’t look up from his laptop. “I’m doing fine, thanks for asking.”</p><p>Shouta raised his eyebrows, taking a seat in an open chair. He could count on one hand the number of times the detective had sniped back at someone in his presence.</p><p>“That bad, huh?”</p><p>Tsukauchi sighed, dragging a hand down his face. He leaned back in his chair and glanced up, amber eyes exhausted with a backdrop of enough worry that it gave Shouta pause.</p><p>“Sorry. Long day.” He pinched the bridge of his nose before spinning the laptop around so Shouta could see it’s screen. “This is the footage Tartarus sent over. They didn’t tell us until this morning.” The bitter tone of his voice clearly told exactly what he thought of <em> that </em> decision.</p><p>Shouta stared at the bloody scene, as the familiar sight of burning flesh and liquefied body matter spread across concrete. The recording flickered and warped, the intense heat emanating from the man below evidently melting the very camera that had viewed the brutal spectacle. Before it cut to black, the lone man standing amidst the blood and gore lifted his head to stare at the camera, luminescent yellow eyes staring directly into the screen.</p><p>“Damn.”</p><p>“That about sums it up,” Tsukauchi agreed, pulling the laptop back towards himself, swapping it for a neat folder. “We already have one victim. A tourist- Maria Wilson, American.”</p><p>Shouta flipped through the pictures of the crime scene. The body, the evidence left behind, it all fit the M.O. There was just one difference.</p><p>“His quirk wasn’t nearly this powerful when I faced him before.” He tapped a particular photo grimly. It showed a car- or rather, half of a car. The remaining metal was warped and covered in black scorch marks. Pooled, molten metal still glowed dimly in this timeframe, clearly showing how the damage had been done. “He had enough power to kill a person- boil the bloodstream, super-heat water. But this? This is far beyond what we’ve seen him do before. Five years isn’t enough time to completely change a quirk around. And he’s been in prison the whole time. What changed?”</p><p>Wordlessly, Tsukauchi flipped to a new photo and pointed. </p><p>Shouta clenched his jaw.</p><p>“Damn.”</p><p>“Are you going to tell the kid?”</p><p>He stared at the picture. A familiar face that had almost killed him once before. And an unfamiliar spectral visage, superimposed. Stained red.</p><p>“We’re going to have to.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. There's Nothing "General" about This</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>*finger guns* plot ahoy</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Master Aizawa still hadn’t come back.</p>
<p>Aang felt he had exhausted just about everything he could do in the dorms without being overly weird and inconsiderate to the people who actually lived there. He’d run up and down all the stairs about ten times, explored the perimeter as much as he could without actually going outside, investigated the contents of all the cabinets in the kitchen, counted how many doors there were in the building, then how many chairs…</p>
<p>Yeah, Aang was feeling a little anxious at this point. </p>
<p>Hagakure seemed to be sleeping off the effects of accidental spirit fever pretty well now that the source of her illness had gone home. He’d used some waterbending to ease some of the nastier symptoms from dehydration and overheating, mostly because it was the right thing to do but also partially to ease the twisted sensation of guilt that had been building up in his chest.</p>
<p>A voice in the back of his head that sounded suspiciously like Katara whispered that it wasn’t his fault that the spirits had broken through the worlds. And he knew that. He really did. </p>
<p>But if it was the General who had spearheaded this escape… then he couldn’t deny that part of this stemmed from a past failure on his part.</p>
<p>It was turning dusky reds and oranges outside by the time the doors to the dorms opened, signaling the return of someone. Aang’s eyes blinked open from where he was meditating next to the couch that Hagakure was sleeping on. The chatter of multiple voices met his ears. Not Master Aizawa, then. The students were back.</p>
<p>“-dude, Midoriya, it was crazy! Are you sure he’s not your secret estranged brother or something?”</p>
<p>“Why do you guys think everyone is related to me?” That was Midoriya’s voice, sounding vaguely annoyed.</p>
<p>“I think it’s cute!” A girl giggled.</p>
<p>“Wha- Uraraka!”</p>
<p>More laughter.</p>
<p>“Oh, hey, Midoriya said you’d be here.” Aang glanced up, meeting Kaminari’s amber gaze. The other teen leaned over the couch, waving with a friendly grin. “Sensei ditched you, huh?”</p>
<p>Aang shrugged, sheepish.</p>
<p>“Guess so.”</p>
<p>“You don’t have to talk to him if you don’t want to.” The girl who’d said that twirled her strange ear decorations around a careless finger. Or were they part of her body? He hadn’t figured that out yet. “He’s an idiot.”</p>
<p>Kaminari legitimately pouted at that.</p>
<p>“You’re killing me, Jirou. I’m just trying to make new friends.”</p>
<p>“Don’t let me stop you, taser brain. And be quiet- can’t you see Hagakure is sleeping?”</p>
<p>Kaminari and Aang both winced and simultaneously leaned away from the couch. Thankfully, it seemed that Hagakure was a heavy sleeper. The most reaction she gave to the surrounding noise was a sleepy mutter and some shifting of the top blanket draped over her form; a lumpy, inexpertly knitted thing in blue and green.</p>
<p>“Ah, Aang!” Midoriya had made his way over to them. “Mr. Aizawa still isn’t back yet? Do you know if everything’s ok?”</p>
<p>“We should have faith in our teacher’s abilities,” his taller friend cut in, emphasizing his point with a vehement hand movement. “I am certain Mr. Aizawa would inform us of any unfavorable circumstances that could possibly involve the student body!”</p>
<p>“<em> Sssshhh </em>,” Kaminari and Jirou both hissed in Iida’s direction. Iida visibly deflated.</p>
<p>“Ah, ahem, yes, of course.” He cleared his throat in a clear effort to quiet himself. “We should not worry about Mr. Aizawa, that is all. He is an extremely competent individual.”</p>
<p>“I guess,” Midoriya said uncertainly. He brightened after a moment, as if remembering something. “Oh! Aang, we’re having movie night tonight. We haven’t been in the dorms long, so we wanted to start a new tradition for all of us, you know?” He twiddled his fingers together and Aang’s attention was briefly drawn to them, crooked and covered with thin white scars. “Do you want to join us?”</p>
<p>“Uh…” Aang ran his hand over his head, a habit he’d unconsciously picked up from the short time he’d had hair. “What’s movie night?”</p>
<p>Everyone within hearing range stopped and stared at him. Aang leaned back, concerned by all the sudden attention.</p>
<p>“Oh my <em> god </em>,” breathed the shorter, cheerful girl he now remembered was named Uraraka. “He’s never had movie night.”</p>
<p>Kaminari snapped his entire body around so quickly Aang was sure he’d get whiplash.</p>
<p>“MINA!” he hollered across the room. “AANG’S NEVER HAD A MOVIE NIGHT!”</p>
<p>“<em> Kaminari for fuck’s sake- </em>”</p>
<p>There was a shriek of unholy glee in return before the room descended into chaos and Aang wasn’t sure whether to be delighted or terrified.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Shouta hunched his shoulders as he fumbled for his key card, the familiar security system lighting up green after a moment to let him in. It wasn’t too cold for this time of night, thankfully, but a bone deep exhaustion still made itself known. </p>
<p>Based on the quiet landscape around him as he made his way up the path towards Heights Alliance, none of his troublesome class had gone on any late-night adventures. Taking into account their track record for such things and the fact that he’d inadvertently added to their number tonight, he considered that a win.</p>
<p>Being a little past one in the morning at this point, most of the lights appeared to be off in the dorms. He supposed he should be thankful. He unlocked the front door with another swipe of his key card and stepped into the warm low-light of the common room.</p>
<p>It was absolute chaos.</p>
<p>Fortunately, it was still and silent chaos. It looked like a party-themed bomb had gone off in the room. Shouta looked around for any of his students, but aside from the familiar sight of Shinsou in his armchair, most of the kids seem to actually be sticking to a mostly responsible sleeping schedule. Based on the remnants of snacks and the positions of various blankets and pillows, they’d indulged in one of their “movie nights” before shuffling off to bed. Including Hagakure apparently, considering the empty state of the couch.</p>
<p>Shouta dropped his bag on the floor before making his way into the kitchen, flipping on the coffee machine as he looked around for Aang. He was probably still here. Aang didn’t seem to have the complete lack of survival instincts that an unfortunate amount of his students didn’t possess. </p>
<p>...at least not that he could tell so far.</p>
<p>It took him an embarrassingly long moment to find his charge, but finally his gaze landed on the soft wood of the bookshelves lining the far wall of the common room adjacent to the kitchen. There, bereft of jacket, tie, and shoes, he could see the lanky figure of the monk perched in the space between the bookshelves and the relatively high ceiling.</p>
<p>Shouta retrieved both his bag and his freshly-brewed coffee and squinted up at him.</p>
<p>“...why are you on top of the bookshelves.”</p>
<p>Aang just blinked at him, hands wrapped around a still-steaming mug. He recognized the red pattern as one of Yaoyoruzu’s. She must have kindly lent it to him. </p>
<p>“Well, the couch was kinda crowded.”</p>
<p>He glanced over to the mess that was strewn around the common area in front of the TV. Shinsou was draped sideways over the worn armchair, the blue light of his phone making odd shadow patterns over his features. The teen briefly looked up from his device at Shouta’s tired stare and shot a deadpan pair of finger guns in his direction before returning to whatever he was doing. </p>
<p>Aang gathered his legs underneath him before gracefully sliding off the wooden shelves. He practically floated back down to the carpet, beverage not disturbed in the slightest from his gentle descent. Slurping the last of his tea, Aang placed his mug in the sink and turned back to the teacher.</p>
<p>“What’s going on?” he asked quietly, grey eyes focused and assessing.</p>
<p>Shouta ran a hand through his hand, mentally wincing as he inadvertently pulled through a tangle. He really needed to keep more hair ties on him.</p>
<p>“Come on,” he sighed, turning to the attached corridor of the dorms. “You need to sleep.” Aang seemed to catch the unspoken <em> And we need to talk </em>, as he trotted after him with a quick wave to Shinsou, who vaguely returned it.</p>
<p>Leaving twenty superpowered children by themselves in a dorm situation would never have been a good idea, no matter how self reliant or disciplined they might be. As such, every dorm had an attached room for the homeroom teacher assigned to their class. Given his late hours and patrol schedule, Shouta ended up there more often than not. Now it seemed that Aang would as well.</p>
<p>“Sit somewhere,” he ordered, waving a hand towards the room’s furniture as he closed the door behind the two of them. Aang hopped onto the couch in his periphery as he set his coffee down on the low table, powering up his laptop at the same time.</p>
<p>“You were gone for a really long time,” Aang said, pulling his feet underneath him to sit cross legged on the cushions. “Did something happen?” The normally cheerful teenager was still and pensive, watching Shouta closely as he organized the folder Tsukauchi had given him.</p>
<p>“In a manner of speaking.”</p>
<p>Aang was silent for a moment.</p>
<p>“The other kids were really worried,” he said, and Shouta had to pretend that something in his chest didn’t ache to hear that. “Like Mina and Kaminari were really loud and got all the others to do movie night because I didn’t know what it was, but still.” He rested his chin on his propped up hands. “They were trying not to think about it, I could tell.”</p>
<p>Shouta took a sip of his coffee and barely registered the bitter taste of it.</p>
<p>“This class has been through a lot,” he admitted. “More than most. It’s understandable that they have different fears than other students their age.”</p>
<p>Aang nodded with far more understanding than he should have had.</p>
<p>“Did you finish what you left to do?”” he asked.</p>
<p>Shouta grimaced and set down his cup.</p>
<p>“It’s become a bit of a bigger issue than we had expected.”</p>
<p>“A your-world issue, or a my-world issue?”</p>
<p>“Both,” Shouta said bluntly. The monk’s eyes widened and he continued. “Earlier in my career- about six years ago now- I caught and put away a serial killer. Iwayama Kei, designated “Boil” by the media. He had a thermodynamic five-point quirk. Simply put, he could superheat anything he put his hands on to the boiling point.” He inclined his head, watching closely for Aang’s reaction. “I think you can imagine how he killed his victims.”</p>
<p>Aang’s expression darkened.</p>
<p>“Yeah,” he said, sounding much too old for his age. “I can understand that.” He tapped his forearm. “Control someone’s blood, and you control their body.”</p>
<p>Skipping over that ominous statement and making a mental note to return to that train of thought at a later date, Shouta nodded and flipped open Tsukauchi’s files. </p>
<p>“Up until recently, he was in prison for his crimes.” He sat down on the floor next to the table, ignoring the way his knees cracked and protested after a long day of running around on rooftops. “He’s escaped and started killing again.”</p>
<p>Aang frowned.</p>
<p>“And you think it has something to do with the spirits?”</p>
<p>Shouta slid some of the photos Tsukauchi had shown him across the table for Aang to see, purposefully leaving some of the more gory ones in the folder. Experienced or not, the kid didn’t need to look at that much death in a single space. </p>
<p>“Like I said, Boil could only heat things to the boiling point of water. That’s deadly when touching pretty much any living thing, but not capable of mass property damage. But somehow, this time around, his quirk can reach temperatures hot enough to melt <em> steel </em>.” He indicated to the half-melted car in one of the recent crime scene photos. “And that’s just from what we’ve been able to observe so far- for all we know he’s able to melt tungsten at this point.”</p>
<p>Aang picked up the photo that had sparked the most amount of concern between Tsukauchi and Shouta; who both knew the reality of Aang’s business here. He traced the outline of the fiery dual-visage with a tentative finger, brow furrowed.</p>
<p>“You think he’s being possessed by a spirit,” he said, and Shouta hated that his life was weird enough at this point that apparently that was a viable option on the table for a murder investigation.</p>
<p>“You tell me,” he returned in his driest possible voice. “Is that something these spirits are capable of?”</p>
<p>Aang winced, rubbing the back of his neck. He set the photo back down on the table as Shouta took another swig of his coffee.</p>
<p>“Normally, I’d say I didn’t have enough experience with spirits to know, but given that this afternoon I just extracted and sent home a spirit that almost killed Hagakure by kind of possessing her, I think so?”</p>
<p>Shouta decidedly did <em> not </em> choke on his mouthful of coffee. He cleared his throat and set his cup down once more, feeling the beginnings of a familiar “problem child” headache coming on.</p>
<p>“<em> Please </em> explain that.” His natural glare may not have as much power without Erasure behind it, but based off of Aang’s immediately sheepish look it was still intimidating enough.</p>
<p>“I was going to tell you as soon as you were done, but yeah. That’s why she was sick and had a crazy high fever. They were mostly just confused. I think they were some sort of fire spirit and they were cold enough to start doing desperate things.”</p>
<p>Shouta kneaded his temples. Apparently, the universe was throwing things at him out of spite, now.</p>
<p>“You sent it home?” he clarified for his own peace of mind. Aang nodded, still looking an odd mixture of bemused and concerned by the journey his face must be on right now. “And Hagakure is ok, now?”</p>
<p>Aang held up his hands, eager to stave off any more concerns in that area.</p>
<p>“Yeah, she’s fine! No trouble getting the little guy to go home and I used my waterbending to heal her afterwards.”</p>
<p>These kids are going to turn me grey by the time I’m thirty five, Shouta thought.</p>
<p>“Anything else I need to know about?”</p>
<p>Aang immediately wilted and <em> fuck </em> Shouta had asked that almost half-jokingly but it appeared that there was more to this discovery of new spiritual possibilities tonight.</p>
<p>“There… is something else.” Aang lowered his hands. As Shouta watched, all the gentle poise and surety that Aang had held in his bearing for the short time he had known him melted away. His shoulders slumped slightly as he mulled something over, clearly bothered by his own thoughts.</p>
<p>“Before the fire spirit left, it warned me about a more powerful spirit.” Aang’s hands fluttered over his lap in a sign of nervous energy, like he wasn’t sure how the other man would react. “And I think he’s the one that orchestrated the breakout into your world.” Shouta nodded to show he was listening. Aang took a deep breath. “His name is General Old Iron.”</p>
<p>“You know him.” It wasn’t a question. He didn’t miss the slight flinch from the young monk as he said that.</p>
<p>“Yes.” Aang was no longer looking at him. He kept his eyes lowered, threading his fingers through each other. “I fought him, once. He’s a very old spirit- and very angry.”</p>
<p>‘What happened?” Shouta quietly prompted.</p>
<p>“Old Iron was friends with another spirit, Lady Tienhai.” Aang shook his head as he recalled. “It’s complicated, but she separated from him when he tried to destroy a human city to protect her. Thousands of years later, he felt Tienhai die and in his rage, he tried to kill the people he thought were responsible. That’s when he met with my predecessor, Avatar Yangchen. They fought too.” Aang sighed. “But she and the Earth Kingdom people she was protecting convinced him of what had really happened- Tienhai had given up her immortality for love. He sank back into the ocean once the humans promised to honor his Lady for all the years to come.”</p>
<p>There was silence for a few moments as Aang collected his thoughts. The monk sunk further into his seat, looking exhausted.</p>
<p>“His armor was eventually pulled out of the ocean by accident, and in seeing that we humans had broken our promise to him, he attacked once more. He said he was going to wipe humans from existence. I fought him.” Aang finally looked up to make eye contact with Shouta once more, deep sadness in his gaze. “He said that I was just like every other human; that no matter what, I had a need to dominate and destroy life. And I could never bring balance to both worlds.” Aang shrugged. “And he left. He retreated back into the Mo Ce Sea. I thought he was gone forever. Until now.”</p>
<p>This was eating the kid up inside, Shouta realized. He blamed himself for this- not only for the General’s apparent escape to a new world, but the murder, Hagakure’s illness… All of it. He rubbed his forehead, internally sighing. This kid has never realized that some things just weren’t his fault.</p>
<p>Damn it.</p>
<p>“There’s a futon in the closet.”</p>
<p>Aang stared at him blankly.</p>
<p>“What?” he asked, caught off-guard by the sudden conversation shift. If Shouta wasn’t so tired and full of bitter thoughts, he’d almost have laughed at the nonplussed expression on the kid’s face.</p>
<p>“Blanket’s on the couch. Get some rest, kid. We’ll tackle this-” he gathered the photos strewn around the table- “once at least one of us has a clear head.”</p>
<p>He’d tackle this tomorrow. When the sun had risen, and he didn’t have to look at a sixteen year old’s face and see guilt and memories of violence painted all over it.</p>
<p>Tomorrow.</p>
<p>He’d fix this.</p>
<p>...tomorrow.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Fire: Both Without and Within</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>well I had to take a bit of a break bc finals but here's the chapter! am back now</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Aang had never quite broken his habit of rising with the sun.</p><p>He’d spent a year barely getting any sleep at all, tensing at every shadow and sudden noise and stealing naps when his friends were awake enough to keep watch for him. When Zuko had joined their party, his early mornings had adapted into following in the firebender’s footsteps. </p><p><em> We rise with the sun </em> , Zuko had flatly explained to him. <em> Just as the waterbenders rise with the moon.  </em></p><p>Breathe in. Breathe out. </p><p>The morning air was crisp and cool against his skin, the slightest edge of wind whispering through the grass beneath Aang’s feet. It was enough that he’d have to mind his flames if he was actually firebending through this kata.</p><p>Dragon’s Dance. Aang grinned slightly as he moved through it. It was the first <em> real </em> firebending form he learned and thus the one closest to himself. No matter how much Zuko grumbled about it’s name - <em> its not dancing, Aang, its an ancient and traditional form the Masters honored us with- </em> he always joined in when Aang asked him to. It was done better in a pair, anyways. It was <em> best </em> to do it with Zuko. </p><p>And if it made their esteemed Fire Lord quietly smile every time they’d completed their sparring, washing away some of the tension and aggravation he bundled up so tightly inside- that was all the more reason to keep insisting on his friend’s company.</p><p><em> Two sides of the same coin </em> , Hakoda had once said thoughtfully, watching them spar together on the rare occasion he’d journeyed with his children northwards during one of the Water Tribe’s delegations. <em> You reflect each other well. </em></p><p>Aang thought maybe he was now starting to understand what that meant.</p><p>Hmm. Someone else had slipped out of the dorms. Aang extended his airbending as he sank low into the next stance, beckoning the wind to bring a sense of who they were. The smoky, peppery taste of a firebender, sharply tempered with bitter frost.</p><p><em> Todoroki </em>.</p><p>Aang deliberately slowed his heartbeat back down to the calm, centered pace he had been practicing. It had stammered in his chest briefly from the unfamiliar gaze honing in on him, an instinctive response he also had never managed to quell. He didn’t have a partner to hold the final lunge with, so he slid into the ending he’d adapted after too many mornings of doing it alone, much to Zuko’s chagrin. His bare feet brushed lightly through the slight damp left behind by the dew beneath him as he straightened up once more, hands clasped in front to signal the end of a form. He breathed out deeply. </p><p>Aang let himself soak in the calming rays of the rising sun for a few moments before turning to catch the eye of his surprise onlooker.</p><p>“Good morning,” he greeted. “Am I in your way?”</p><p>Todoroki simply blinked at him, expression carefully neutral. It appeared he had prepared for the morning temperatures with the jacket slung around his waist, underneath of which he was wearing dark, loose pants and a boxy white shirt. He shook his head slightly at Aang’s inquiry. The movement prompted the early sunlight to glimmer in highlights against the stark burn surrounding his eye, so achingly familiar to Zuko’s that it almost caught the breath in Aang’s chest to see it.</p><p>Something in Zuko had broken when he’d received his. Aang wondered what it had done inside Todoroki.</p><p>There were differences, of course. Zuko’s was raised and snarled in the manner that spoke of close, intense fire that scorched skin and flesh alike. Todoroki’s didn’t have the same depth to it, for all its vivid discoloration. Aang tilted his head curiously, thinking back to Katara’s healing lessons on scarring and the tissues surrounding them. This was… <em> scalding </em>, that was the word. Water heated to boiling.</p><p>Huh, could he do that with just his waterbending? He could heat it with firebending of course, but could he will the water into a quicker state? The waterbender’s usage of ice was just pulling the water apart into a solid form, after all. Could he urge the water faster? </p><p>Oops, back on track. Todoroki had said something and he’d just missed it.</p><p>Aang shook his head as if to physically fling away his musings, sheepishly bringing a hand up. At least he hadn’t been staring at the other teenager.</p><p>“Sorry, I didn’t hear you. Could you repeat that?”</p><p>Todoroki looked nonplussed, having taken a step closer. </p><p>“You’re not wearing a shirt,” he finally said.</p><p>Aang glanced down at his own chest, bemused. Master Aizawa had brought a duffel bag with things from his and Master Yamada’s apartment when he’d returned to the dorms last night. Including, Aang was gratified to find, his airbending robes. The sash and wrap were carefully folded off to the side in a patch of grass. He’d dropped them there to don later.</p><p>“I am not,” he agreed. He glanced up. “Are you ok?”</p><p>Todoroki tucked a lock of his curiously-colored hair behind one ear without <em> quite </em> looking directly at him, the morning sun lending a rosy tint across his nose and cheekbones. </p><p>“Yes. I-” He stumbled over his words, sounding entirely unsure of how to carry on the conversation. “I was just making sure you knew.”</p><p>Spirits, he looked so <em> awkward </em> just standing there. Aang bit down a snicker, sympathetic but amused. He decided to take pity on him.</p><p>“Do you wanna join me?”</p><p>The not-quite-a-firebender jerked his head up at Aang’s honest question, awkwardness bleeding into genuine confusion. “What do you mean?”</p><p>‘Well,” Aang gestured to his getup. “You got up to run or spar or something, right? We can warm up together. It’ll be fun!” He added at Todoroki’s skeptical gaze. “You can do the Dragon’s Dance with me. It’s better with a partner and mine is… at home,” he finished with an internal wince. </p><p>Maybe it was just a lucky day, maybe he was particularly charming (or maybe, even though Aang had no way of knowing, Todoroki had been trying to shake off the chill of nightmares and old, well-learned fears and most any company was better than none) but after a short span of consideration, Todoroki shrugged and walked over to him, untying the jacket from his waist to neatly fold and place beside Aang’s own garments.</p><p>“What do we do?” he asked, bright eyes sweeping over to him beneath unruffled bangs. Something familiar warmed in Aang’s heart and he settled into the first position of Dragon’s Dance once more with a satisfied smile playing at his lips. </p><p>“Watch, and follow me.”</p>
<hr/><p>“What style of martial art do you practice?” Shouto eventually got around to asking, between broad steps and fierce, sweeping jabs and blocks that vaguely reminded him of a spread out karate kata. “I don’t recognize most of it.” He fumbled the next step because of the distraction of his question, swearing internally at the mistake. He pulled in his footwork from where it had gone wide and reset the motion.</p><p>Aang, who had been patiently running him through this peculiar style, looked startled at the question and immediately tried to still his expression, though his uncertainty bled through slightly as Shouto straightened up again to focus his full attention on him. He fixed his gaze on the monk, puzzled by the reaction.</p><p>“This is a firebending form,” Aang blurted out. “My friend taught it to me. Because he has a fire… quirk. You know.” Aang wiggled his fingers in what Shouto assumed was a mimicry of flames. “Whoosh.”</p><p>Shouto nodded, still confused.</p><p>“But you have a wind quirk,” he said bluntly. Everyone in class had seen it. It was impressive, to say the least. Especially considering the amount of control he appeared to have over it. “Why would you practice exercises created for fire quirks?”</p><p>Aang shrugged.</p><p>“The world is a big place,” he replied, the barest bit of humor flitting through his gaze as he said so. “It’s good to learn from other people and make it your own.”</p><p>That seemed to be a very fitting point of view for a monk, Shouto conceded. Still, the training he had gone through to hone his fire side had been drastically different from the exercises for his ice. He could barely imagine <em> mixing </em> the two. They wore him out enough as is.</p><p>Shouto took up the first position once more at Aang’s prompting. He hadn’t really answered his question. But if he didn’t want to discuss it, who was he to press the subject? There were certainly things <em> he </em> didn’t want to discuss when it came to his father’s training.</p><p>“You’re stiff,” Aang commented, falling into place beside him. “Relax. It should feel natural.” He took a deep, exaggerated breath and slid elegantly into the next stance of the kata. “When done properly, the Dragon’s Dance feels like the sun itself is guiding your fire. <em> Ah </em>... so my friend has told me.” </p><p>Shouto squinted at Aang over the next strike. He still wasn’t the best at picking up social cues, to his friends’ mixed amusement and chagrin, but he thought that maybe the monk was acting a bit odd this morning.</p><p>Aang snapped into the next lunge, gaze focused and clear. The movement of his shoulders and forearms drew Shouto’s eyes to the blue tattoos that apparently extended to the rest of his body. The blue lines that rippled over his arms and feet also ran down his spine in a single, clean stroke of color, marred only by the mottled scarring in the small of his back. Faint Lichtenberg fractals splayed out from that center point.</p><p>Marks that were usually only made by lightning strikes. Strange. </p><p>Aang stopped, casting an inquisitive look Shouto’s way just as he himself realized he had been openly staring at the monk rather than following along with the kata.</p><p>“Sorry, did you need me to go over the stance again?” he asked, holding his position. It was a difficult one too; he’d paused in between steps with one foot still off the ground after a low sweep, leg extended in front of him as he tilted his chin upwards to catch a glance of Shouto. Shouto coughed, tearing his gaze away from the toned plane of muscle that curved over Aang’s hip and vanished under the soft grey folds of his loose leggings.</p><p>“Yes, please, if you would.” His voice most certainly did <em> not </em> break on that statement.</p><p>Aang smiled brightly and obliged, taking up the crane-like beginning stance once more. </p><p>Step wide, slide up. Forwards punch, wrist block. Shouto joined the movement, falling into step. </p><p>Deep stance, come up to open hand disarm and strike. Low leg sweep, lunge-</p><p>And stamp, fists arched to the side to mirror Aang.</p><p>“Good!” Aang laughed, clapping his hands together as he dropped his arms. “You’re a natural,  Todoroki. That was perfect.”</p><p>Shouto just nodded in response, pushing aside the flutter of warmth that bloomed in his chest at the compliment. </p><p>“Thank you. You’re a good teacher, yourself.”</p><p>Aang hummed cheerfully, leaning backwards with his hands on his hips to stretch his back in a series of quiet <em> pops. </em> </p><p>“You should try it with your fire sometime.” He leaned over the space between them and patted Shouto on the shoulder. “Might figure some things out! I sure did when I went through it the first few times.”</p><p>“I… might do that,” Shouto said uncertainly. Aang eyed him as he stretched out his arms, shaking loose his wrists and hands with the same motion.</p><p>“You know, I always like watching Zuko firebend. My friend,” he clarified quickly. Maybe he misinterpreted the baffled look that had no doubt crossed Shouto’s face at that. “It’s got so much color and life in it.” Aang mimed an open hand strike, palm up. “It’s really smooth and beautiful to see because of how in-tune he is with it.”</p><p>Shouto clicked his jaw shut, not entirely sure how to respond to that. Logically, he knew… not everyone with a fire quirk was like Endeavor. But still…</p><p>He guessed he was still having a hard time reconciling fire with anything other than destruction. </p><p>But Aang’s face was open and relaxed, with no sign of deceit or fear as he spoke so fondly of his friend’s abilities. A lump rose in his throat and he quickly swallowed the vaguely melancholy feeling that had come with it. </p><p>“Zuko was angry for a really long time,” Aang was currently saying. He folded his arms in front of him, staring out at the horizon. “He was hurt. A lot.” Aang dropped his gaze to his own hands and gently clenched them into fists. “Fire is life, and passion, and heart. And for years, he fueled his fire with all those negative feelings all bottled up inside him.”</p><p>Shouto couldn’t breathe. Just listen. </p><p>Aang tilted his head and breathed out deeply, his quirk whipping up a small gust in response.</p><p>“But in the end, he realized that- he didn’t need to hold onto all that anger. Because all it was doing-” Aang gently patted his chest, right above his heart. “-was hurting <em> him </em> .” He smiled, the expression tinged with soft pride. “So Zuko let it go. He forgave himself. And yeah, he’s not perfect. He’s still grumpy and a stickler for rules and we have to be patient with him sometimes. But he’s <em> so much better </em> than he was before.” Aang caught his eye as Shouto just stood there wordlessly, frozen and unsure. “We really care about him. And that’s the most important part.”</p><p>Shouto finally managed to wet his lips.</p><p>“Why are you telling me all this?” he asked, voice so quiet it bordered on rasping into nothing. "We barely know each other."</p><p>Aang’s expression softened as he gave him a long look. It was a look filled with understanding, grief, and fondness in equal parts. It made Shouto feel so vulnerable, so <em> seen </em>, with those grey eyes fixed on him in his entirety.</p><p>“You looked like you needed some help,” Aang said, soft and frank. </p><p>
  <em> It’s your power, isn’t it?! </em>
</p><p>Shouto huffed a laugh, dropping his shoulders in faint relief.</p><p>He wouldn’t figure this out today, or tomorrow. Probably not even during this first year at UA. But he had help. He had his friends, his teachers. And in the end, that was all he needed. </p><p>“Kaminari was right. You must be related to Midoriya.”</p><p>“...wait, what?”</p>
<hr/><p>“It’s interesting, this quirk of yours,” he mused, rolling his hand back and forth to watch the flame flicker across his skin. “Elemental quirks here are so finicky. Flashy. They lack control.”</p><p><em> It’s not a quirk </em> , the spirit said coolly. He could feel his ire rolling through him, along with a grudging amount of respect. <em> Call it what it is: firebending. I work with you, you work with me, remember? </em></p><p>He hummed, gnawing on his bottom lip before slamming his hand down on the door in front of him. Wood splintered and crackled as his palm left a scorched, black imprint in the material. The flames licked up in a raging inferno, almost faster than he could expect.</p><p><em> Allow me </em>.</p><p>His hands rose on their own with no direction from him. The flames parted with a quick swipe across the air, heat and faint substance practically licking up his wrists as the element yielded to the spirit’s touch. Fingers curled, and the fire died down with it, brought to heel under their combined will.</p><p>“Impressive.” He smirked, stepping through the ashen doorway, molten yellow eyes searching for his target. “Firebending, indeed.” He ruffled through the countless folders, pursing his lips as he picked and chose the exact items he needed from the rather archaic filing cabinet. “Does your <em> General </em>also possess such abilities concerning the elements?”</p><p>Disgruntled, tamped down anger swelled up at his statement.</p><p><em> I may have followed him through the Tear, but you damn well know he doesn’t command us in the end. </em> He shivered slightly as giddy heat rushed under his skin. <em> You and I have allied ourselves for our own goals. Don’t forget it. </em></p><p>“How could I?’ he laughed. “I’m after vengeance as much as you are.” There they were. All the information he needed. Silly of them. He’d only needed to kill three people to get here.</p><p>Silent contemplation itched at the back of his mind.</p><p><em> Shall we destroy the room? </em>His fingers twitched at the thought.</p><p>“Ah, no. We do want the heroes to know we’re after them, don’t we? Leave a bit of a trail, make it more fun.”</p><p><em> Very well. </em> Focused, gleeful intent rose up in him, fueled by both of them. <em> You get to kill Aizawa Shouta. </em></p><p>“And you get to finally kill the Avatar, yes,” Boil finished. He grinned, wide and fierce. “Let’s make them suffer first, hmm?”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Memories and More Planning</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I got impatient so I'm posting this now lol</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The kid was a light sleeper.</p>
<p>Part of it was probably a natural thing. Aang was an energetic individual who reacted to almost everything around him in some fashion. But this went deeper than that. </p>
<p>Aang had taken to sleeping on the spare futon for this arrangement. They ended up in the adjacent dorm rooms more often than not, what with the rotating dorm parent arrangements. Shouta tended to be up at all hours of the night anyways, quietly padding through the rooms to the kitchen for coffee and better lighting from time to time. He knew he was quiet. He had to be, in the underground hero line of work.</p>
<p>But without fail, every time he caught his first glimpse of Aang when coming into the room or moving about, the kid’s eyes were open, faintly slitted and gleaming in the low light. He’d never move or acknowledge Shouta passing through, just noted his presence before closing his eyes once more.</p>
<p>It made him wonder, what sort of life Aang must lead in his own world, to have already learned to sleep with one eye open and his back to the wall. </p>
<p>And then there were the nightmares.</p>
<p>The first time he’d seen it, it was the third night Aang had spent in their world. He’d been going through some new case files Tsukauchi had given him, checking for any signs of these “spirits” Aang had talked about. It had crept past midnight while he was on the couch, flipping through pages with burning eyes. The kid had fallen back asleep a short while ago, apparently satisfied that Shouta didn’t pose a threat at the moment.</p>
<p>An unexpected murmur brought his head up. Aang slept light and Aang slept still; he’d been able to tell that much even from the limited time he’d seen the kid actually sleeping. In the dim light of the single lit lamp, he could see the features of Aang’s face tense. His chin tilted downwards into his collarbone as his brow furrowed, fingers clenching around nothing. </p>
<p>Shouta sighed quietly, concern fading to something remarkably like pity as he watched the kid’s eyes flicker beneath his closed lids. He wouldn’t be much of a teacher <em> or </em>a hero if he couldn’t tell when someone was having a nightmare.</p>
<p>(But he still wished his kids didn’t have them.)</p>
<p>This phenomenon continued. More often than not, Shouta found himself in the same room as his temporary ward while the latter was asleep. Aang weathered whatever his unconscious was throwing at him in almost complete silence, twitching slightly from time to time. There would occasionally be little flare-ups from his bending: an almost imperceptible rumble from below or a wisp of frost coalescing at his fingertips.</p>
<p>A bit complicated, true, but it never seemed to go further than that. He supposed he should be grateful. In a building full of sleepy teenagers with potentially destructive quirks, this was hardly the most severe thing he’d had to deal with.</p>
<p>Back in the present, Shouta tapped absentmindedly on the keyboard of his laptop, rubbing at sore, dry eyes.</p>
<p>He’d been awake for hours at this point, sleep as elusive as ever. Aang had slipped out about an hour ago. He didn’t see the harm in it. The kid was told to stick close to the building and he had dutifully listened and agreed, much too awake for someone his age to be at <em> dawn </em>. Happily shrugging himself back into his orange robes, he’d trotted off, presumably to do something monk-ish or spiritual. Hell if he knew.</p>
<p>From the steady increase in noise and the faint tone of conversation coming from the common area, it was safe to assume that the rest of the gremlins were starting their morning.</p>
<p>A brief knock on the door in mere formality was the only notice he received before Aang reappeared, smiling and with a faint flush across his cheeks that spoke of recent exercise. Shouta drained his most recent cup of coffee in preparation for the monk’s ever-present enthusiasm.</p>
<p>“Why do you look like you did something I’m going to have to worry about later,” he asked, setting his mug back down on his table with a soft <em> clunk </em>. Aang waved him off cheerfully, which did absolutely nothing to assuage his suspicion.</p>
<p>“Nothing happened, I just talked to Todoroki and showed him how to do the Dragon’s Dance, that’s all.”</p>
<p>“The what.” He hoped that wasn’t <em> literal </em>. Did Aang have actual, live dragons in his world? Honestly, at this point he wasn’t even surprised anymore.</p>
<p>“It’s a firebending form!” Aang spun in place, arms out in front of him, whipping the sash of his robes in a flurry around his torso. “My favorite one. Zuko and I learned it from the Masters!” He grinned down at Shouta on the couch, bright and brimming with energy.</p>
<p>Shouta blinked at the beaming expression and for a moment the grey eyes and tattoos were replaced by wisping white-blue hair and sky-shaded eyes and-</p>
<p>Shouta clamped down <em> hard </em>on the familiar, black morass of sorrow that abruptly filled his lungs, threatening to drown him with an old, well remembered grief.</p>
<p>“That’s interesting,” he heard himself say, as though from deep underwater. “Todoroki doesn’t interact much with people he doesn’t know that well.”</p>
<p>Aang laughed softly in acknowledgement. The sound was enough to snap him back to the present and he swallowed hard, pushing faded memories out of his mind. </p>
<p>“I saw Midoriya, Iida and Bakugou come back in too. Early birds, I guess.” Aang adjusted his stance to have his weight fall on his hip, casting a discerning look in his direction. “Todoroki went with Midoriya a few minutes ago. I had to go around the back.”</p>
<p> “Based on the amount of noise, I’m assuming they’re having breakfast with the rest of them,” Shouta said wryly, his momentary slip-up fading to the back of his thoughts.</p>
<p>“Yup. Kinda chaotic though. Your students seem stressed,” Aang commented. “Thought someone was gonna get their breakfast in the face there for a second.”</p>
<p>Shouta shrugged, pulling up his files for Tsukuachi on his screen once more.</p>
<p>“The Provisional License exam is in just a little over a week. They’ll survive.”</p>
<p>“What’s that?” Aang asked, sounded genuinely interested. Shouta glanced up from his laptop, briefly squinting at the odd way Aang was holding his arms before replying. </p>
<p>“If they pass the exam, they’ll have permission to engage in heroic activities on a provisional basis. Still under the guidance of other pros, of course. But they’ll have a little more leeway now.”</p>
<p>“Oh, I guess that’s really important then.” Aang shifted thoughtfully. His hands were clasped in front of him with no clear indication of what it was for. “We don’t have any rules like that back in my world, really. It’s a choice to learn how to use your bending. Like the Water Tribes have waterbenders that are just healers; they never wanted to learn how to fight. It’s up to you and your masters.”</p>
<p>“Hmmm.” Shouta cast a suspicious glance at Aang’s pose before mentally dismissing what was most likely just another oddity of his. “Did you eat yet?”</p>
<p>“...no?”</p>
<p>He huffed in exasperation. <em> These kids. </em> He picked up an apple from the table and pitched it at the teen with a soft overhand throw. </p>
<p>“Here. Eat.”</p>
<p>Aang yelped. Shouta watched in bewilderment as the monk contorted his body to catch the apple as it fell with one foot, precariously balanced on the other with his arms still held out from his body like he was clutching an invisible pillow. </p>
<p>They both stared at each other for a moment.</p>
<p>“Why,” Shouta eventually said, not sure if there was anything else that <em> could </em> be said in this situation.</p>
<p>“My hands are full, obviously,” Aang complained. He brought the apple-carrying foot up to stand in a mimicry of a tree pose, fruit balanced neatly on the inside of his bare foot like a hacky sack. “I wasn’t just going to <em> drop </em> her. That’d be rude!”</p>
<p>“<em> What </em>.”</p>
<p>The confused staring started up again.</p>
<p>“The spirit?” Aang tried after a moment, lifting his hands up with nothing between them. “The one I’ve been holding since I came back inside?”</p>
<p><em> Oh for fuck’s sake </em>.</p>
<p>“I can’t see anything,” Shouta said. With a remarkable amount of control considering the situation, he thought.</p>
<p>“Oh.” Aang glanced down at the apparently invisible spirit in his arms. “Things make a little more sense, now.” He tossed the apple to one hand and lifted an arm to meet gazes with whatever he was holding. “Do you know anything about this?”</p>
<p>A beat passed, then two. Just when Shouta was about to resign himself to not catching sight of <em> anything </em> so long as Aang was here, something happened. The space above the monk’s arms shimmered like a heatwave over blacktop, but with a faintly greenish sheen. And a long, slender form rippled into existence.</p>
<p>It was vaguely snake-like, with an iridescent scaled body of green to gold shades. As he watched, it reared up in Aang’s arms, tilting its head in his direction. Translucent dragonfly wings fluttered briefly before folding themselves over Aang’s hands.</p>
<p>“Ssssuch is the way of the humansss,” the spirit whispered. It’s voice was surprisingly deep for its size, and hissed in a melodic tone that was significantly more dignified than the base species it resembled. “They do not have the sssight.” It slithered forwards in the air, pointed snout a mere foot away from Shouta as it inspected him.</p>
<p>“But I do,” Aang said, sounding confused. He watched the odd staredown between the spirit and the teacher with a wary gaze, as though not entirely sure how either would react. “And humans in our world can see spirits with no problem. Like Hei Bai? And the Painted Lady? And…” he stumbled over his words here, a slight frown crossing his face. “And General Old Iron,” he finished softly.</p>
<p>“Yesss,” the spirit hissed, curling back to focus its- or her, based on Aang’s form of address- attention on Aang once more. “<em> Our </em> humansss. A gift from the Era of Raava. To ssseperate, but not forget.”</p>
<p>“The Era of what?” Aang looked completely baffled, and for once, apparently had the same amount of knowledge of something spirit-related that Shouta did. It was almost refreshing. The spirit made a warbling, wind-chime noise that rang out through the room and twined herself up Aang’s arms to perch on his shoulder.</p>
<p>“Poor youngling.” The spirit sounded melancholy. She touched her shining beak of a snout to Aang’s cheek. “Sssuch weight should not have been placed on your shouldersss.”</p>
<p>“Excuse me.” Shouta cleared his throat politely, taking a chance to give Aang a breather as the teenager reeled, bewilderment (and grief?) swimming in his features. “Do you know anything about the General that might help us find others of your kind? We’d like to keep damage to a minimum; for both spirits and humans.” Might as well take an opportunity presented, no matter how bizarre it was. </p>
<p>The next sound the spirit made was low and threatening, a rippling growl that rumbled through both human’s chests.</p>
<p>“The General is foolish,” she snarled. “Tearing worldsss. Two gatewaysss, there have alwaysss been, from before the Harmonic Convergence. He disturbsss the balance.” She lowered her head, drooping slightly in the wake of her ire. “Hate is ssstrong. Unbefitting of one who wasss once ssso noble.”</p>
<p>“I’m sorry,” Shouta said quietly. “That’s why we need to stop him.”</p>
<p>The spirit hummed.</p>
<p>“I know not where the General hidesss. But we can feel how he gathersss power. For what,” and here she fluttered her wings, whipping up a brief gust of air, “I do not know.”</p>
<p>“Thank you,” Aang finally said, the crease in his brow telling more about his current emotional state than the steadiness in his voice. “It means a lot to me. Would you like me to send you home now?”</p>
<p>The spirit flowed off of his shoulders to curl gracefully onto the low table in front of them both. Vibrant eyes of backlit gold scrutinized Shouta briefly. </p>
<p>“You are the one they come for,” she said lowly. “An unnatural conjunction, born from the Fog of Lost Sssoulsss.” While he tried to decipher <em> that </em> wonderful new piece of information, the spirit turned back to Aang, lifting herself into a raised, regal position. “Thank you, Avatar. May your path not ssstray from itsss course.”</p>
<p>Aang nodded and bowed to her, low and smooth. He took a deep breath. </p>
<p>There wasn’t a lot that startled Shouta nowadays, but he still was put on edge to see Aang’s eyes blank out into a white-blue glow. The monk settled onto his back foot, one hand carefully extended with fingers crooked. And as he <em> pulled- </em></p>
<p>Space shifted in his wake. </p>
<p>Light spooled from the rift neatly torn apart, trickling down and outwards. A flash, a moment, and the spirit was gone. </p>
<p>Shouta blinked the spots out of his vision as Aang relaxed, visage returning to normal.</p>
<p>“Hmm.” He stared at the point in space where the glow and the strangeness that had come with it had vanished back into oblivion. Something needed to be said, after the nearly oppressive weight the room had taken on for the duration of that odd conversation. “So that makes two spirits you’ve sent home so far.”</p>
<p>“Three, actually.”</p>
<p>“<em> What. </em>”</p>
<p>“It wasn’t anything bad!” Aang hurriedly said, waving his hands in front of him like he could physically stave off the disgruntled look Shouta was currently pinning him with. “The second night in your apartment another spirit came and found <em> me </em> first. I sent him home easy enough, no problem. Honest.”</p>
<p>Shouta pinched the bridge of his nose, sighing.</p>
<p>“Aang, from now on, whenever you encounter a spirit, <em> tell me about it </em>. I’d like to stay updated on what you’re doing. Like for instance, how many spirits are still left roaming around in this world.”</p>
<p>“Oh,” Aang dropped his arms. His eyes flicked off to the side in contemplation. “I’m not actually sure how many spirits are here. Not like, in numbers.” He finally sat down on the floor beside the table, propping his chin in his hands with narrowed eyes. “It’s more of a feeling.”</p>
<p>Shouta made another note on his laptop with the rest of the information they’d learned just now. He needed to keep Tsukauchi informed as well, after all. Nedzu would probably find out no matter what he did. The principal was mildly terrifying in that way.</p>
<p>“Could you give me an estimate?” he asked. Aang visibly thought that over, clearly doing his best to be accommodating for Shouta’s sake.</p>
<p>“...there’s probably at <em> least </em>three.”</p>
<p>“Very helpful,” Shouta deadpanned. He wrote that down. </p>
<p>
  <em> Huh. </em>
</p>
<p>“You mentioned that benders in your world learn from teachers.” He pushed himself back, fingers drumming on the table as he thought. “Makes sense, considering you said there are only four options. So where did you learn to tear apart the fabric of the universe? Your parents? A school?”</p>
<p>Aang stilled. It was so out of character for him that Shouta actually glanced up when he caught the complete lack of movement out of the corner of his eye.</p>
<p>Aang looked… blank, for lack of a better word. It was unnerving, to see the teen he’d come to know over the past week just <em> freeze </em>.</p>
<p>“I don’t know who my parents were,” Aang said mildly. “I was raised by the monks in the Southern Air Temple.”</p>
<p>“Ok,” Shouta said, projecting as much calm as he could. He wasn’t sure what web he’d just tangled in, but he’d like to mitigate any damage he may have accidentally caused. “And your teachers?”</p>
<p>Aang shrugged. The movement was practically serene. But Shouta had enough practice in hiding emotions. Like recognized like, after all.</p>
<p>“They were from all over the world.” He smiled, though it didn’t quite reach his eyes. “I traveled a lot.”</p>
<p>It struck Shouta then, not for the first time, how much he didn’t know about Aang for someone who apparently wore his heart on his sleeve. It worried him.</p>
<p>“Alright,” was all he actually said, returning to the file with a careful amount of nonchalance. “Eat your apple.”</p>
<p>Aang almost startled, looking down at the fruit he’d been rolling between his hands like he’d forgotten it existed. He took a careful bite. After a moment he continued crunching on the bright red fruit, apparently having remembered that he was, in fact, hungry.</p>
<p>Satisfied that at least one of his problem children was eating, Shouta returned to Tsukauchi’s file. He typed out the majority of the information the most recent spirit had given, along with some scattered thoughts from earlier musings. Closing the folder he’d been compiling notes on Aang himself in, he swung the laptop around so Aang could read it. Aang looked up, a question in his eyes, having already devoured half of his apple. Shouta made a mental note to try to get him to eat more before they exited the dorms for the day.</p>
<p>“Take a look and let me know if I’ve missed anything.”</p>
<p>The teenager squinted at the screen of the laptop. His lips moved silently as he studied it, creeping along at a snail's pace. It took maybe about five minutes of this before Shouta’s suspicion grew large enough to cut Aang off momentarily, mentally smacking himself for not thinking of it sooner.</p>
<p>“Aang, can you read this?” </p>
<p>Aang paused, looking abashed. </p>
<p>“Yes?” </p>
<p>Shouta narrowed his eyes at the teenager.</p>
<p>“Really,” he said, unimpressed. Aang wilted a bit. </p>
<p>“Your language takes a bit longer to understand,” he admitted. “The information you have here is accurate as far as I can tell, though.”</p>
<p>Shouta blinked. Then huffed and pressed a hand to his face in mild exasperation, mostly directed at himself.</p>
<p>“Of <em> course </em> your world has different writing and language systems than this one,” Shouta grumbled. Nedzu would have a <em> field day </em> with this. “That should have been obvious. How did you learn Japanese, then? You sound fluent; like you’ve been speaking it your entire life.”</p>
<p>Aang’s brow furrowed as he thought that over.</p>
<p>“I don’t know,” he admitted. He tapped his left temple with a finger, frowning slightly. “Your world spirit said she traded her knowledge in exchange for mine. It… it kind of felt like when the Lion Turtle taught me how to bend energy.”</p>
<p>Apparently Aang had no limit to the amount of completely ludicrous-sounding things he could say. Shouta wasn’t sure whether to be impressed or horrified. </p>
<p>“Meaning?”</p>
<p>“Well I’m speaking your language right now,” Aang said. He paused as he considered something. “I bet I could speak mine if I tried. But it’s like- I have to switch between them? So I have to actively think about it if I want to read something in your language.” He shrugged. “It’s not <em> that </em> hard. Just a bit of a delay.”</p>
<p>Shouta just grunted in confirmation, pulling his laptop back.</p>
<p>“We’re going to Hosu tonight for a patrol.”</p>
<p>“Ok,” Aang agreed, accepting that with the same geniality he expressed at most everything Shouta said. “Why Hosu?”</p>
<p>“The detective has been keeping me updated on any incidents that seemed overly suspicious or untraceable over the last week.” Shouta gestured to his screen. “We’ve compiled quite a few in that area that bring up suspected invisibility quirks. Given what we just learned, it makes sense that those may be signs of your spirit friends.”</p>
<p>Aang’s eyes followed his hands as he quickly typed up another note before swapping to the maps of recent incidents. The teen was still openly fascinated with whatever technology he came across, from cars to phones to the electric stove Hizashi cooked at back in their apartment. </p>
<p>“Cool.” The teen seemed appropriately impressed. “What should I expect?”</p>
<p>“I expect you to follow your “feeling” and hopefully track down any spirits in the area while I follow a mostly-normal night patrol,” Shouta said, blunt. “Stick to airbending. That work for you?”</p>
<p>Aang agreed that it did. Even looked mildly excited to do so.</p>
<p>“Another thing.” He leveled the full force of his gaze at Aang. “While I am on patrol, you are <em> not </em> to engage any villains under <em> any circumstances </em>. Is that clear?”</p>
<p>The teenager immediately balked, objecting. </p>
<p>“But-”</p>
<p>“No buts, problem child. I mean it.” Shouta made sure to keep looking him in the eye, to impress just how important this was. “Our world has very strict laws about quirk usage. Technically, I’m breaking at least four just by letting you come <em> with </em> me. But,” he continued, seeing Aang’s mouth click shut. “These are special circumstances. You’re chasing things this world can’t see under normal conditions. And I need you to be fully focused <em> on that </em>. Let me do my job.”</p>
<p>Aang slowly nodded.</p>
<p>“I thought Midoriya was your problem child,” he protested, a wry grin tugging at the corner of his mouth.</p>
<p>“I’m a very busy man. I can have multiple problem children at one time.”</p>
<p>Aang snickered at that, the last of the shadows from the serpentine spirit’s words finally leaving his face.</p>
<p>“So what are we doing today before then?”</p>
<p>“Class.” Shouta shut his laptop decisively after saving his notes to send off to the detective later today. “I’m running my class through a few rescue exercises to help them prepare for the Licensing Exam. But I’m going to drop you off at the Support Department before that.”</p>
<p>“The what?”</p>
<p>“The Support Department,” Shouta repeated, getting to his feet. He needed more coffee. “You’re going to talk to Power Loader about what you’re going to wear in the field, as well as any other materials you might need to help you contain spirits that may <em> not </em> be as helpful and polite as the last few.”</p>
<p>“But I already have my robes,” Aang interjected, slightly uncomfortable with the idea. “They’ve worked for me so far.” </p>
<p>Shouta leveled a stern look at him.</p>
<p>“They are also bright orange, and highly recognizable.” He flicked Aang lightly in the forehead, making him blink. “You stand out enough as is. I don’t want you to draw the attention of other heroes or say, the Commission.” </p>
<p>Aang rubbed his forehead rather ruefully.</p>
<p>“I guess that’s true. Wouldn’t be the first time I had to hide, I suppose.” The teen’s eyes flicked up to his. “What’s the Commission?”</p>
<p>Shouta grimaced.</p>
<p>“People we don’t want you to interact with.” He wearily shook his head at Aang’s incomprehension. “Not important at the moment. Let’s get going. I have a class to attempt to beat common sense into.”</p>
<hr/>
<p>The Support Department was <em> interesting </em> to say the least. </p>
<p>Power Loader turned out to be the teacher and hero in charge of the Support Department; a shorter man with ginger hair and a strange hodgepodge of mechanical clothing. He was polite and accommodating, and either knew about Aang’s real identity or simply didn’t consider it his business to pry. </p>
<p>There weren't many students in the workspace for the first period of classes, it seemed. A boy a few years older than Aang had the monopoly on the workbenches on the far side of the room, glossy silver hair pulled back into a high tail as he methodically worked his way through a pile of something with a lot of metal. His partner worked next to him on the several bolts of fabric stretched over circular frames. As Aang watched, she turned to pick up a tool on a separate table, her arm stretching far past its normal length to grab the intended item before returning to whatever she was working on.</p>
<p>And then there was <em> Hastume </em>. </p>
<p>Or Mei, as she had insisted he refer to her as. She was friendly, if a bit intense. </p>
<p>Ok, maybe a lot intense. </p>
<p>“How much of a range of motion do you need?” she was currently demanding, flitting around him with a tape measure and something that glowed blue when she clicked it. “What’s the limit of the altitudes you can reach? How much weight can you carry? Can I interest you in one of my babies to help with initial thrust velocity?”</p>
<p>“Uh. A lot, I don’t know, preferably none, and no?” Aang twisted in place from where she had ordered him to stand still with his arms out wide, trying to keep her in his line of sight. “I’d really just like something close to my robes.” He paused, remembering something. He hadn’t exactly had time to pack a bag before his world spirit had pulled him here. “And maybe a staff?”</p>
<p>“A staff?!” Mei shot up in front of him. He could clearly see the unusual pattern in her metallic eyes now- as she had stopped maybe an inch from his nose. They were also <em> extremely </em> focused on him. It was making him a bit cross-eyed. “What type are you interested in? Electric? Thermodynamic? I have some extendable options. Or would you prefer detachable escrima sticks? Power Loader made me lower the voltage on them but if he’s busy I bet I can add it back-”</p>
<p>“No, Mei.” Power Loader didn’t even look up from the suit of armor he was spraying down. “Let the kid breathe.” Mei rolled her eyes but obliged and took a step back.</p>
<p>Aang decided he liked her. Even if she was kinda scary. </p>
<p>“Do you have something I can draw on?” He mimicked writing with one hand, glancing around at the mess that was Mei’s corner of the room. “I’ll show you.”</p>
<p>Mei brightened. She took a lunging step over a pile of rejected inventions on the floor, nabbing a pad of what appeared to be parchment on the far side of her table. She whirled and pressed it into his startled hands, a manic gleam in her eyes.</p>
<p>“<em> Show me. </em>”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Manual Override</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>this took so damn long to write oof</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Mizushi Masaki, better known as the pro hero Manual, didn’t regret having to retake the hero licensing exam. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Honestly, he was just glad that the kids all made it out alive that night. The police department had made a futile attempt to keep the details of the Hosu Incident on the down low in face of panic and media outrage. (Though in the wake of Kamino, he wondered if that was really necessary anymore.) That meant while he didn’t technically get a formal reprimand, he </span>
  <em>
    <span>was</span>
  </em>
  <span> dropped back to a provisional license until he retook the test. Did it grate a bit? Sure. But...</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Iida Tenya had almost </span>
  <em>
    <span>died</span>
  </em>
  <span> because he hadn’t kept a close enough eye on him. He was a kid- a gifted kid, sure, but a kid nonetheless. Masaki had seen how much he was hurting. He’d known that the real reason the youngest Iida had decided to intern in Hosu was to find the Hero Killer. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>He’d fucked up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So yeah, retaking the hero licensing exam was the least he could do.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hosu was well along the way of being fully rebuilt in wake of the Nomu attacks. There was the odd collapsed building in between those that had gotten better insurance, and the pavement in some areas still bore scorch marks or a pitted surface, but most importantly, the people had started to relax again. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The complement of heroes who patrolled Hosu had changed quite a bit. Some, like Native, had taken leave to recuperate from their injuries after the Incident. Others, like The Fly, had moved to other districts. And though they’d never admit it out loud, to safer streets. So the current patrols had a lot of newer heroes, straight out of school with a shiny new license to prove it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Which meant that despite the fact that he still needed to retake his exam, Masaki held seniority over a good portion of the heroes in the district at the moment. He’d been stuck on night patrols mostly, but it </span>
  <em>
    <span>did</span>
  </em>
  <span> lead to some awkward situations with some of the fresh pros he was paired with. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then of course on </span>
  <em>
    <span>top</span>
  </em>
  <span> of all that, they had to have another problem start plaguing the city. Because, you know. Karma or something. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was a surge of petty theft and minor assault cases in Hosu. What made it unusual, rather than an unfortunate norm, was the fact that all of these incidents seemed to have been committed by someone, or someones, with an invisibility quirk. Now those were rare enough already: to have multiple at one time in one city? </span>
  <em>
    <span>That </span>
  </em>
  <span>was suspicious. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>So here he was. On a late night patrol with a newbie pro and the instruction to “look for anything suspicious.” Sigh.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You worry way too much,” his partner for the evening scoffed. Coil was a recent graduate from Shiketsu, or so he had bragged, with a physical mutation quirk that gave him about half a meter on the average person and spring-like attachments to his lower legs. He bounced in place as Masaki took a moment to check both above them and around all corners before they moved on to the next patrol grid. “It’s not like we’re gonna get jumped on a street corner. We’re pros.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s our job to worry,” Masaki countered tiredly, this not being the first time the other man had brought up that point. Coil just rolled his eyes, indigo cape swishing over his calves as he trotted ahead a few steps. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No wonder he’s still stuck here,” he heard Coil mutter under his breath, clearly thinking he was out of hearing range. His eyebrow twitched.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So he only felt a little bad at the bit of vindictive pleasure he gleaned from Coil getting bonked in the head with a soda can about ten minutes later.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Coil immediately whirled towards the alley the projectile had come from, an incensed glare on his face. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Who the hell threw that?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>In the shadows of the alley way, a tall figure in smooth black and greys stepped forward just enough so his outline could be seen.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That would be me. Hello.” A man in a worn leather jacket tilted his head in their direction. He sounded vaguely amused. “How are you on this fine evening?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Masaki opened his mouth to reply, a bit confused by this entire exchange, but his grudging partner beat him to the punch.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Who the fuck are you?” Coil demanded. He took a step forward, getting up in the other man’s space. “Are you wasting our time or did you just think that was funny?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I wanted to get your attention,” the stranger said in a long-suffering tone that one might address to a particularly rowdy toddler. “It worked, didn’t it?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’re pros, you dick. Stop playing around and go home.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, I am well aware of who you are.” The man smiled. It was polite and charming, and yet it still sent a chill down Masaki’s spine. He forced a placid smile of his own and stepped forwards, placing a warning hand on the other pro’s shoulder.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then you know we should really continue with our patrol. Can we help you, sir?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The man’s grin </span>
  <em>
    <span>glittered</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, actually. You see, I’m a villain. I’ve been murdering people and I just thought you should know.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The two pros stared incredulously. The man simply stood there serenely, countenance completely open.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you fucking serious?!” Coil demanded, shaking off Masaki’s hand. “What kind of self-centered idiot are you?” Masaki took a quick step back, glancing around the area. At this time of night, there were no other people in sight.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Well this was not looking good.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s quite rude, you know.” The self-proclaimed villain looked them up and down curiously. “Aren’t heroes supposed to be paragons of virtue? The best society has to offer?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You do realize that we’re going to have to have you arrested,” Masaki cut in, eyeing the man warily. “Confessing to murder is a serious claim.” The villain sighed and took a few careful steps back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, you’re welcome to </span>
  <em>
    <span>try</span>
  </em>
  <span>, of course. But I’m still waiting for the main event.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And what does that make us?” Coil snapped, because apparently he couldn’t let anything go. All the alarms in Masaki’s head flared, and he edged himself into a slightly better position. The tension was thick enough to cut with a knife. The villain uncrossed his arms.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Why, you’re bait, of course.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Masaki dove forwards, tackling Coil out of the way just in time as a roaring streak of fire obliterated the spot he’d been standing not a second before. He twisted best he could as the two of them tumbled, managing to get his feet back under him after a moment. The younger hero scrambled up underneath him, eyes wide beneath his domino mask at the realization of how close he’d just come to getting incinerated. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Masaki grimly flicked down the visor on his helmet. He got to his feet, taking a step in front of Coil as he scanned the area for fire hydrants. The villain’s shadowy form flickered behind the roaring flames.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Coil, break open the fire hydrant,” he commanded in a low tone, still keeping an eye on the villain in front of them. “Eight o’clock, about twenty meters.” The younger man hesitated just for a moment before he snapped “Go!” at him, spurring him into action as he kicked into high gear, enhanced legs streaking across concrete in a purple blur. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The fire parted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re not as laid back as you look,” came the amused voice, floating between them. The villain studied him as Masaki shifted into a defensive stance. “I certainly don’t remember running into you before.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Just lucky, I guess,” Masaki replied tightly. “We can do introductions now, if you’d like.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The villain’s eyes, a blazing and sickly yellow, crinkled in a smile. He laughed, throwing his head back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So polite! Almost makes me regret having to kill you. Ah, well.” He swiped black bangs out of his face, a near-gleeful smirk appearing. “I believe the moniker our charming public has given me is </span>
  <em>
    <span>Boil</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Masaki’s breath caught in his chest.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re that serial killer.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I suppose I am,” Boil mused, rubbing his chin. “Though it pleases me to know that word of my actions have gotten around the hero community. Tell me, are you familiar with the pro hero Eraserhead?”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Keep him talking.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not personally.” Masaki shifted a few steps to his right. “Just by reputation.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was a victorious cry and the harsh sound of metal screeching as Coil busted open the fire hydrant behind him. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Manual!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Immediately, Masaki dropped back, turning to call the water to him as it gushed out of the ground. There was that familiar tug in his gut as the water responded, flowing to him and his quirk. Boil lunged at him in that moment, getting a geyser in the face for his troubles.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The villain coughed, taking a step back as Masaki recentered himself, still keeping a grip on the liquid now pooling around his feet. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Coil, sprinting back into the fray now that his task was completed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“A waterbender. How irritating.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Masaki gritted his teeth, sending another jet out at the villain. His voice had changed with those words. Instead of the smooth tenor Boil had previously spoken in, this new voice layered over that, with deep tones and clipped endings. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Boil’s hands flashed outwards and the water erupted into steam as an inferno leapt up in front of them. Coil, who had been charging forwards with a high kick, yelped and dropped in an attempt to avoid it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Coil!” Masaki shouted, desperately trying to see through all the water in the air. Just </span>
  <em>
    <span>jumping in</span>
  </em>
  <span> like that, what was he thinking-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A scream, piercing through the quickly dissipating steam. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Heart in his throat, Masaki gathered all the water around him that he could, stretching the boundaries of his quirk’s abilities and </span>
  <em>
    <span>shoved</span>
  </em>
  <span> it towards the epicenter of that horrible, raw-edged shriek. It washed over two figures, pushing the upper one back and out of the field of vision. He dropped his shoulders, swallowing down the dizziness that came with so much quirk usage.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There, in the middle of a pool of water, lay a crumpled figure in a charred, purple costume. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Blood </span>
  <em>
    <span>fizzled</span>
  </em>
  <span> over raw flesh, mingling and diluted with the water it dripped into. Masaki couldn’t see his face from this angle, but his chest heaved in barely contained horror at the sheer scale of the burns weeping over the majority of Coil’s prone form. It twitched, slightly, grisly tendon and white bone peeking through ruined muscle and skin alike.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The villain straightened up from where he’d been pushed away almost forty feet if not for the wall behind him, soaked, but still standing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re persistent,” he growled in that strange, dual voice he’d taken on, the first hint of ire finally leaking into his speech. “Only one of you was supposed to die tonight. I guess it’ll have to be him.” He started forwards for Coil’s body once more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Masaki rushed forwards, ignoring the ache in his head and throat as he ordered the water up to surround the injured pro where he lay. Boil jerked his hand back, a conflicted expression crossing his face as the other hand caught fire. Masaki side-stepped the flame, wincing as it seared across the left sleeve of his costume and drove his knee up under the man’s chin with a sickening </span>
  <em>
    <span>crack.</span>
  </em>
  
</p><p>
  <span>Boil toppled backwards, hissing and spitting as blood dripped down his chin. Masaki pressed his attack with the space that blow had given him. Water curled around his enemy’s ankles to keep him off balance as he struck out for his solar plexus, managing to sink two blows in before a flash of fire caught him on the side of the head.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He stumbled and quickly ripped his helmet off, burning his fingers where the tough plastoid material had melted like so much wax in face of the other man’s quirk. That one moment of distraction left him open; even though he retreated backwards, he wasn’t quite fast enough to stop Boil from initiating contact.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The villain’s hand clamped over the arm where his costume had been burned away.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And all he knew was </span>
  <em>
    <span>pain</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was a guttural scream faintly echoing in his ears that he only vaguely registered as his own as white-hot agony splintered his consciousness.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then darkness swept up and swallowed him whole.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>The kid ran rooftops like he’d been doing it all his life.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Which to be fair, he might have. Aang took the phrase “light on his feet” to an entirely different level.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Despite his class’s best effort, the day had gone by uneventfully and as planned, Shouta regrouped with Aang for his night patrol. A bit of a train ride out of his usual way, but not so far that he’d consider staying the night in Hosu.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As it were, several hours of patrol went by with nothing out of the ordinary. Aang seemed to be sticking to his word; so far Shouta had trounced at least three muggers and some low-tier villain who wanted to rob a mostly-empty convenience store. The teen had hung back on the rooftops every time. If you didn’t count his quiet cheering every time he thought the pro got a particularly good hit in, he was practically unnoticeable as he trailed in Shouta’s footsteps.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Besides. He might feel uneasy about having a teenager without a license as his temporary sidekick, but at least he knew that said teenager could take care of himself. His little sparring session with Tokoyami hadn’t only been for his benefit, after all. Shouta wouldn’t have agreed to let him come with him on patrol if he hadn’t been damn certain that he could deal with trouble should the need arise.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The two of them slid to a halt on the edge of one of the taller buildings in the city skyline: both to take a breather and a good look around before going after anything specific. Shouta huffed out a breath, the cool air a welcome chill on his face on such a night. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How’s your equipment treating you so far?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang shuffled his feet beside him, looking down at his shoes thoughtfully.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I definitely don’t hate it.” The monk brushed a hand over his new sash, fingering the texture of it. “It’s a little weird, but I’m just getting used to it, I guess. I like the staff, though!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The vibrant orange of his robes was gone, replaced by more muted shades. The shoulder wrap ended at his waist and draped easily over shortened, russet pants with pockets and a slim belt. Light bracers in a slate grey wrapped around his wrists, contrasting with the black athletic weave of the high collared shirt underneath it all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang twirled his new staff in his hand with a pleased expression, firmly planting the end of the silvery length on the roof beneath their feet.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Mei and I are really happy about how this came out,” he said with an impish grin.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouta made a mental note to be suspicious about that later.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So long as you don’t have any unregistered explosives or firearms, I’m not too concerned.” He eyed the young monk. “And you definitely don’t stick out as much in this.” The tattoos, unfortunately, could not be avoided. Shouta would just have to keep him far enough away from any scuffles that he wouldn’t be immediately recognizable at a later point. “Anything else?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah, yes, actually! Here.” Aang pressed a few small spheres into his hand, each about the size of a golf ball. Shouta raised an eyebrow, lifting one up to inspect it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What are these for?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Power Loader made them for me. They’re supposed to disperse into salt.” Shouta must have made a truly bizarre face because Aang continued his explanation. “Salt is supposed to be a purified form of earth. Some people say that it can contain or injure spirits, depending on how strong they are.” Aang shrugged. “I don’t know if that’s true. But if you have trouble seeing a spirit, maybe they'll help. Couldn’t hurt to try.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Didn’t have Spirit 101 in your world?” Shouta commented, slipping the bombs into one of his belt pouches. If he hadn’t been looking at Aang in that exact moment, he would have missed the almost imperceptible flinch at his words. He frowned internally.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I didn’t exactly have anyone to teach me,” Aang said, subdued. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouta reprimanded himself silently because he really needed to </span>
  <em>
    <span>stop accidentally doing that</span>
  </em>
  <span> and continued the conversation before Aang could dwell on it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“How’s it coming with sensing spirits tonight?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang chewed his lip thoughtfully, staring out over the horizon. The city was lit up with artificial lights, painting yellow smears on top of the blue-black darkness that made up the skyline. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There are a lot here, I think,” Aang said. “There’s a lot of spiritual energy, but I’m having a hard time narrowing it any further beyond that.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Give me your best guess.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Seeing Shouta looking at him patiently, the monk sighed and closed his eyes. His fingers twitched at his sides and around his grip on his staff. After at least a full minute of silent contemplation, waiting for whatever weird signal Aang could apparently trace through the air, his eyes blinked open once more, looking thoughtful.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think there’s two pretty strong ones close by,” he remarked. “One is angry, the other is… less angry?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Typical.” Shouta grasped his capture weapon once more. “Let’s go after the less angry one first. Lead the way.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang rose up on pointed toes briefly, head strangely tilted as if he was listening for something no one else could hear. He hopped in place, sash bobbing in time to his movements.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s this way.” He gestured off to their left. “I can hear… a kid’s voice. A little girl, maybe.” He huffed out a quiet laugh under his breath. “This may be a little too familiar, and I don’t know if that’s a good thing.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouta squinted at him as they both took off over the gap, the former tucking into a roll upon landing to absorb the momentum from the long jump, the latter simply using his bending to soften his steps and carry the distance easily.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do I want to know what you meant by that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang grinned, wry.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Last time I followed the sound of giggling, I got my butt kicked by a girl I met in an underground pit fight.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Forget I asked,” Shouta muttered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The journey was swift between the two of them, Aang leading a fairly straightforward path across the skyline. They passed a park on the way, the still water of the pond reflecting their shadows against the moon as they dashed past.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Their route took them further downtown than they had been all night. Eventually, Aang slowed. He visibly searched the area around them before brightening and leaping up onto a nearby congregation of pipes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There!” The monk pointed to presumably where the spirit was. “I was right. Young girl, black hair, white dress. She’s stopped on that beam over there. Just sitting on the end.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright,” Shouta agreed easily. The steel beam in question was attached to a partially re-constructed building. Fortunately, there were no construction workers out and about at this time of night.  “How do you want to proceed?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re letting me take the lead on this?” Aang sounded surprised. For such a competent individual, Aang seemed to be at a loss when other people expressed faith in him. Time for a different approach.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Aang, do you remember what my quirk is?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The monk blinked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Erasing-something, isn’t it? With the scary eyes and the hair.” He waggled his fingers above his head. “You tried to use it on me when we first met.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouta grimaced, recalling that particularly chaotic meeting.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Erasure. When I look at someone, I can erase their quirk, provided it isn't a physical mutation. A quirk, which if I remember correctly, did not work on you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang’s eyes widened, catching on.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So you’re basically a nonbender- or a chi blocker,” he said thoughtfully. “That’s really impressive. But...” his brow furrowed. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But?” Shouta prompted. Aang looked slightly hesitant.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Not super useful against spirits,” he admitted. “Honestly, </span>
  <em>
    <span>I</span>
  </em>
  <span> have trouble with spirits if they’re really angry about something, and I’m supposed to be the most spiritually attuned person in the world. In my, world.” He amended. Shouta nodded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So anything you can do is leagues above my possible contributions when it comes to spirits,” he said bluntly. “Of course I’m letting you make the calls in these instances.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He sighed as those words didn’t quite manage to erase the uncertain look on the teen’s face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Aang, I can’t even </span>
  <em>
    <span>see</span>
  </em>
  <span> the spirits unless they want me too.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh. Right.” Well, the uncertainty was gone, but it was replaced by mild embarrassment. He’d take it. Aang squared his shoulders in preparation before using a quick sprint and hop combo to clear the not-inconsiderable distance to the construction site.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouta watched Aang take off with the faintest amount of exasperation. It was almost </span>
  <em>
    <span>unfair</span>
  </em>
  <span> how agile that child was. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The monk landed in the middle of the beam, the soles of his shoes barely touching the steel.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hello,” he greeted hesitantly, crouching. “Do you need help?” He listened intently to whatever response the spirit gave him, shaking his head after a moment and looking back to where Shouta stood, waiting. “It’s ok, he won’t hurt you.” He paused for a reply. “Yeah, he looks grumpy, but he’s actually really nice!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He didn’t know whether he should be offended or pleased. He settled for a mixture of both.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A flicker of white sparks appeared at the end of the beam, and after a moment Shouta could also see the spirit. Her appearance was something straight out of an old horror movie; a young girl with long, oily black hair that draped over her torn shift dress. She was watching him curiously across the wide gap, empty black gaze dripping liquid down sallow cheeks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“See?” Aang was saying. “Humans are pretty nice once you get to know us.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>The ghostly child simply looked up at him and raised her arms in a silent request to be picked up. Aang smiled and complied as he got to his feet. He balanced her on one hip, the opposite hand reaching out to trace the recognizable pulling pattern.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The blue glow lit up the dark around them. The spirit looked at the rift hesitantly and glanced back at Aang, who nodded in encouragement. She then looked back at Shouta, waved shyly at him and ducked through the tear in the world before he had the time to do more than just blink.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Damn it, at this rate he was going to get </span>
  <em>
    <span>used</span>
  </em>
  <span> to spirits. He internally mourned the loss of his sensible life, ignoring his husband’s mental voice that reminded him that his life had literally never been sensible.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang coasted back across the gap, sash fluttering behind him in an ochre-colored trail. He grinned at Shouta, looking pleased and much more relaxed than he had been just five minutes ago.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, now that that’s taken care of-” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fire bloomed red against the night sky.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Both of their heads whipped around at the sudden combination of light and noise.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So… I’m assuming we’re going after that now?” Aang asked after a moment. Shouta smacked him lightly on the shoulder.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, we are, as a matter of fact. But </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> are staying back, remember?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He vaulted his way over the small ledge that connected to the next rooftop, knowing that Aang would easily keep up.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As they were closing in on the street the fire had originated from, he could hear Aang make a startled noise behind him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know if this is important right now, but that really angry spirit I sensed earlier? It’s close.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouta risked a glance behind him to catch sight of the monk.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’ll deal with that once we get to it,” he said grimly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That was when an agonized scream split the night air. Shouta snapped around to face forwards once more, spurred into putting on a little more speed in wake of that cry. Aang gasped and took a different route, placing him at a higher vantage point.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The pro skidded to a stop at the end of the final rooftop, tensely searching the scene below him. It unfolded as flames leapt even higher than before.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>One figure he assumed was a hero, though he didn’t recognize them, down in a pool of water fed from a broken fire hydrant, unmoving and charred. The street was a mess, lined with scorched sidewalk and warped cars from the fire and heat that he could feel even from this high up. Flames licked and spread over a destroyed building and the surrounding pavement as easily as a lit match dropped in a puddle of gasoline. A pro he </span>
  <em>
    <span>did</span>
  </em>
  <span> recognize, with a surge of disquiet. Manual was in bad shape, slumped over on his knees. His trademark helmet lay half-melted beside him, his gloves burned away to show blackened hands and fingers.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And like a cursed phoenix amidst the ashes of its brethren, there stood the very serial killer he’d been searching for since they caught wind of his escape.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouta cursed, snapping his goggles into place.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Aang, I’m giving you permission to engage. Get to Manual first.” He pointed, making sure Aang knew who he was referring to. He briefly heard the monk’s call of acknowledgement before he was jumping off the roof, capture weapon winding around the nearest undamaged lamppost. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>His foot slammed into Boil’s upper arm as opposed to the vulnerable shoulder, but he still gleaned some satisfaction at the way the villain buckled under the sudden weight. Boil went down hard, a startled grunt forced out of his lungs, and Shouta rolled with the impact, already upright again after a mere few seconds.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Boil recovered faster than Shouta would have expected, and he had to hastily activate his quirk and spring backwards as the villain swiped out at him, blackened pads indicative of his five-point quirk missing his sleeve by scant inches.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So you </span>
  <em>
    <span>were</span>
  </em>
  <span> in the area.” Iwayama, Boil, sounded far too calm for the situation at hand. He brushed himself off, ashes flaking into the air, conversing as though they were simply old friends that were catching up. “It’s been too long, Eraserhead.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouta felt his lips twitch in a barely-contained scowl.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Arson and vandalism? Not exactly your usual scene, Iwayama. I thought you once said you had more class than the average villain.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Oh, call me Boil, everyone does,” the man returned dismissively. In the current setting, with soot smeared all over his leather jacket and slim blood trails leaking from the corners of his mouth, he looked practically deranged in the ever-changing light. “And like most things, this was simply a means to an end.” He smirked at him. “My friend needed to test out some new </span>
  <em>
    <span>abilities </span>
  </em>
  <span>we’ve recently acquired.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Let me guess,” Shouta said dryly. They both circled each other slowly, him with his capture weapon poised and Boil with his hands carefully extended by his sides. “You had a spiritual awakening.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was that damned laugh again. High and controlled, unbefitting and used far too often for his tastes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And you still think you’re clever.” Boil raised his hands, inspecting them carelessly as Shouta gritted his teeth, eyes starting to burn from his quirk. “You’ve erased my quirk again. Annoying. But…” he dropped them and slid sideways with steady balance. “I have some news tricks up </span>
  <em>
    <span>my</span>
  </em>
  <span> sleeves.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Whoosh.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouta dove sideways as a gout of flame seared across the pavement towards him. He caught himself on his hands and wheeled himself back onto his feet, hair lifting once more as he reactivated the quirk he had dropped upon dodging. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Boil’s hands stayed lit.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Damn it</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He blinked, absurdly relieved that at least he didn’t have to keep his quirk activated this whole fight. The villain surged towards him and Shouta immediately took to the defensive, doing his best to stay out of range of these sudden bending abilities. Because what else could they be, if not what Aang described as firebending? It looked like his and Tsukauchi’s “spirit possession” theory was the unfortunate truth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>What the fuck was his life.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A single slip up, and Shouta found himself backed into a corner, flames at his back and Boil in front of him. He cursed, seeing no immediate outlet, and wrapped his scarf around his forearms. He might have to get in uncomfortably close.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Boil’s eyes were alight with violence and victory.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Too bad you can’t erase </span>
  <em>
    <span>this</span>
  </em>
  <span>, Eraserhead.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouta brought his arms up in front of his face in preparation to block, with no opportunity to get out of the way he’d just have to weather the blast and hope for the best-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The fireball was batted neatly aside by a stinging blade of wind. Aang landed lightly beside him, eyes narrowed in concentration and staff held at the ready in his outstretched hand.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Well</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Isn’t this a pleasant surprise.” As Shouta watched, Boil straightened up from his previous stance. When he spoke next, his voice had changed from the one he knew to one he… didn’t. An older man’s voice, low and steady. “Avatar Aang. It’s been a while.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouta saw Aang’s face go </span>
  <em>
    <span>white</span>
  </em>
  <span>. The monk froze in place, shock bleeding over his features as he slowly turned his gaze towards Boil.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“... Admiral Zhao?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So you do remember me.” The firelight lent a harsh cast to the man’s face as it flicked behind him. “I certainly didn’t forget </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But </span>
  <em>
    <span>how-</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Aang cut himself off, eyes widening in horror. “La dragged you into the Spirit World.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“He did, yes.” Shouta tensed as Boil, or Zhao, or </span>
  <em>
    <span>whoever </span>
  </em>
  <span>was in control of that body started walking forwards, eyes intent on the young monk. “And do you know what happens to humans in the spirit world, Avatar?” Zhao bared his teeth in a soundless snarl. “They </span>
  <em>
    <span>torture</span>
  </em>
  <span> us, in the Fog of Lost Souls.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Hey</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” Shouta snapped. He took a step in front of a stricken Aang to block the other man’s advance. It was incredibly disconcerting at how stark the change in personality was from Boil to his apparent spiritual hitchhiker. “Is there a point to all this?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do you know what that child did?” Zhao paused, taking on an almost conversational tone. “He killed me in cold blood. I was dragged down into the depths of the ocean by </span>
  <em>
    <span>his </span>
  </em>
  <span>power. Crushed, slowly, by the pressure, until my lungs collapsed and my eyes burst and I bled out into the dark water, with no hope of ever seeing the sun again.” He traced a finger under his eyes, keeping an intense look fixated on the two of them. “It took a </span>
  <em>
    <span>long</span>
  </em>
  <span> time for me to die.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I </span>
  <em>
    <span>didn’t,</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Shouta could hear Aang whispering behind him. A strangled mantra, repeated over and over. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>I didn’t, I couldn’t-</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t deny it. It’s easier to just admit these sorts of things.” The man’s voice dripped with faux concern. “How does it feel being a murderer, Avatar?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouta felt a soft hand touch the back of his shoulder.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Manual and the other guy are still alive,” Aang whispered, his voice shaking the barest amount. “I helped as much as I could, but it’s pretty bad. He says he’s calling a number?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouta relaxed minutely. Emergencies services were en route. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t ignore me, you little brat.” Zhao’s anger was different from Boil’s. It seethed and crackled, just like his voice. “You ruined my life; the least you can do is </span>
  <em>
    <span>give me your attention!</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouta’s ears popped uncomfortably at the sudden change in air pressure as Aang reacted in the same instance he did. The monk moved with all the ferocity of a small hurricane and guided his staff to direct a </span>
  <em>
    <span>torrent</span>
  </em>
  <span> of wind directly at a charging Zhao. The man was thrown completely off his feet to sail backwards, limbs splayed and leaking juts of fire as he </span>
  <em>
    <span>somehow</span>
  </em>
  <span> managed to recenter himself by the end of his impromptu flight. He flashed a grimace in their direction as he landed. Then, he leapt into the air, propelled by the fire he was controlling, to land on the roof the two had previously arrived on.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang dashed after him in a blur of movement. He bounded over the building with no apparent effort, quickly vanishing from view just as the villain had.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Long since resigned to the fact that he’d forever be chasing after people with over-powered quirks, Shouta simply followed as soon as he deemed he wouldn’t get set on fire upon landing. His capture weapon helped propel him upwards and he planted a foothold on a rougher spot of brick before grabbing the edge of the roof with one hand. He hauled himself up the rest of the way, staying low and on guard as his feet touched down on the gritty surface. He looked across the wide roof to scope out the fight currently taking place in front of him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As Eraserhead, he’d been in this field long enough to see some truly intense fights with villains. Even just this last year in the USJ, the Camp, </span>
  <em>
    <span>Kamino</span>
  </em>
  <span>. He’d accepted a long time ago that there were just people out there, heroes or villains aside, that had absolutely insane quirks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But this fight was different.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zhao was fire and Aang was air but at the same time there seemed to be an </span>
  <em>
    <span>understanding </span>
  </em>
  <span>between the two of them. For the first time Shouta could truly see what Aang had meant when he called his power </span>
  <em>
    <span>bending</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Their respective elements flowed around them in a shocking display of control; fire batted aside with gusts of wind and wind strikes blocked by great gouts of flame.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>This was highlighted more than anything by the way they both moved. Those were stances and forms of experienced martial artists, precise and deadly in a way that a good majority of the pros on the scene simply didn’t bother to learn, instead focusing on their quirk’s abilities first, their bodies second. But to watch Aang twist midair and redirect Zhao’s fierce strike in the form of an axe kick- </span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was mesmerizing in a terrifying sort of way. Because that was a </span>
  <em>
    <span>child, </span>
  </em>
  <span>a talented, powerful one, but a child nonetheless, dodging killing blows like they were </span>
  <em>
    <span>nothing </span>
  </em>
  <span>with no outward reaction other than a look of intense concentration.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>That sort of skill only came from experience.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouta wanted to </span>
  <em>
    <span>hit</span>
  </em>
  <span> something. He’d settle for Boil (or Zhao, </span>
  <em>
    <span>whatever-</span>
  </em>
  <span>).</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He glared across the way at the man’s form and </span>
  <em>
    <span>tugged</span>
  </em>
  <span> on his quirk, erasing it once again. The villain faltered this, the next burst of flames he punched outwards no longer quite so large. Aang ducked easily under the strike. Huh.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Well, that may have confirmed that Boil’s original quirk </span>
  <em>
    <span>was </span>
  </em>
  <span>currently mixed with Zhao’s firebending. Somehow.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Refusing to think anymore about that weird twisted logic, Shouta threw himself into the fight.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Zhao growled and redirected his first scarf attack, two scorching kicks sending the fabric fluttering uselessly off to the side. It was a good thing that his capture weapon was made out of such a resilient material, or he’d be out of the running already. The villain sent a burst back in his direction but Aang stepped in to deflect it, arms spinning in a crisp, circular motion.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Figures that </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> would favor this little hellion,” Boil gritted out, because that was the previous man’s voice now, normally smooth tone rough with exertion and barely controlled anger. “You were always willing to turn a blind eye when it came to overpowered little brats, Eraserhead.” His next punch was sloppy, most likely because the original owner of the body was back in control, but his grin was viscous. “You certainly had a soft spot for little Tsutsumi.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouta’s kick hit Boil right in the face with a loud </span>
  <em>
    <span>crack</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t you fucking </span>
  <em>
    <span>dare</span>
  </em>
  <span> talk about her,” he hissed, feeling the coldest anger he’d felt in a long time bury its icy shards under his skin. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Boil choked out a wet laugh from the blood streaming down his chin and throat, nose clearly broken. Aang’s next whip of air almost hit dead center, but he managed to stave off the worst of it just in time with a well-placed fire strike, still smaller due to Erasure.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Don’t talk about what? How she died? The way she </span>
  <em>
    <span>screamed</span>
  </em>
  <span>-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The capture weapon yanked his feet out from under him just as a small tornado buffeted him back. He slid across the roof as Aang dashed forwards to follow up, trading a pair of blows before Shouta caught up with them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Stop this, Zhao!” Aang’s cry was desperate and wavered the smallest amount. He took a few steps back, letting all three of them regroup. The fight had moved close to the edge of the current rooftop, a steep drop into darkness beside them. “You don’t have to keep doing this. The war is </span>
  <em>
    <span>over</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>You think we care about that?</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang flinched as the discordant, combined voice washed over them. The villain stood straight and menacing, glowing a bloody red as the spirit’s form was now revealed. Just as in the photo from Tartarus, a spectral visage that could only be Zhao hovered over Boil’s features, glittering eyes and strong features pulled into an ugly expression of </span>
  <em>
    <span>loathing</span>
  </em>
  <span>.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>The only thing we want is for you to suffer</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Three things happened.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang stumbled back as if physically struck, eyes wide.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Boil/Zhao dropped into a now familiar stance as he prepared to charge the two of them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouta reacted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The fire curled over the villain’s hands and spiraled around his form. He pivoted to send the strike forwards at the very same moment that Shouta whipped his scarf out to intercept.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>There.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>The end of his capture weapon wrapped around the man’s wrist and shoulders just in time to redirect the blast. Boil stumbled, briefly off-balance, and that was all the opening Shouta needed to twist, drop his hip and </span>
  <em>
    <span>yank-</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>The possessed villain slammed </span>
  <em>
    <span>hard </span>
  </em>
  <span>into the railing of the fire escape that just barely peaked up over the lip of the rooftop and toppled backwards, scarf still entangled around him. Shouta cursed as the villain vanished from view, digging in his heels in preparation for the harsh pull that would come when the weapon snapped taut. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>But it never came. His capture weapon fell loose. He hurried over to the ledge and looked down into the darkness, searching intently for any sign of Boil.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Nothing.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The man was gone.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The only sounds in the night were the crackling of flames behind them, the faint, approaching sirens, and his own harsh breathing. Shouta closed his eyes, forcing down all the raw feelings that had made themselves known tonight. He turned to face Aang once he was certain his face was as calm as he could make it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are you alright?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang nodded numbly, looking shell-shocked. His gaze was fixed on the point the spirit duo had vanished. Shouta made his way over to him, slow and steady.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The monk wrapped his arms around himself, clutching his staff tightly and barely reacting when Shouta dropped a gentle hand on his shoulder. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey,” he said, quiet. “You did good. Emergency services are on their way.” The teen swallowed, meeting his eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do we do now?” Aang asked, voice scratchy. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouta looked over at the flames still flickering merrily in the moonlight, to the blank space where one of the cruelest men he ever met had just disappeared, and then back at the pale, unsteady teenager in front of him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was no contest.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Come on, kid. Let’s go home.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. All Aboard the Train (of Thought)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>less murder more talking this chapter</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>It was the occurrence of Ashes jumping off of his lap rather than any auditory cues that let Hizashi know that Shouta was home. Ms. Tubby, being the dignified cat she was, didn’t deign to go scampering off to the entryway like the kitten. Instead, her ears simply flicked to attention from where she lay curled up at the end of the bed. Hizashi pulled his headphones off and paused his playlist.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Murmured voices echoed out softly in the kitchen. Both Shouta and the kid must have come back to the apartment tonight. Shouta said something in a low voice, muffled by the door in between them. Aang’s lighter tones responded for a moment, before they petered off and soft footsteps told him that the teen had walked further away. Probably heading to the futon Hizashi had pulled out of the closet for him on his first night here. It was still situated out by the couch, and had become Marmalade’s third favorite napping spot.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Different footsteps that he easily identified as Shouta’s padded up to the door of the bedroom and opened it, the owner of said footsteps still clad in his hero gear. He looked half-dead on his feet, but really, when didn’t he. Ashes trailed behind him, demanding attention. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No dorm watching for you tonight?” he asked, briefly shifting his attention away from the transcription he was writing up for his next show. Shouta hummed a gruff note in the back of his throat that was probably supposed to be a noise of affirmation.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Kan’s turn. The apartment was closer.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The tangle of black and white that was his husband flopped face down on the bed without bothering to even take off his scarf. Hizashi chuckled softly at the action and reached over to knead his fingers along his scalp, noting the grime coating the dark hair.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You smell like smoke,” he informed Shouta, who hadn’t moved and only made a tired grumbly sound at the touch. “And you have ash in your hair. Go take a shower.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta grumbled something that was muffled into the sheets but complied, pushing himself up once more to head in the vague direction of their bathroom. After a minute or so, the sound of the shower could be heard.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It wasn’t too long until he was back, clean and wrestling his damp hair back into something more manageable than simply hanging into his face. He’d changed into sweats and a dark shirt and immediately crashed himself onto the bed again, much to the displeasure of the two cats who had just settled back in.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Long patrol?” Hizashi asked, glancing up from his laptop once more. Shouta sighed and pushed himself up so he could sit next to him at the headboard as opposed to sprawling out all over the covers like a dead starfish. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You could say that.” His husband’s voice was scratchier than usual. Given how much he’d smelled like smoke when he’d come in, it made sense that he must have inhaled some as well. “We ran into Boil in Hosu.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hizashi looked up sharply, attention caught.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Iwayama? Are you both alright?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta gently bumped shoulders with him to stave off his concern. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No injuries,” he said quietly. “Aang didn’t even get a scratch.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s not what I asked, Shou.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. Hizashi caught his gaze when he lifted his head again, serious and intent.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It was a bit rough,” he admitted, which in Shouta-speak meant </span>
  <em>
    <span>it was absolutely terrible.</span>
  </em>
  <span> “Boil brought up Tsutsumi.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, </span>
  <em>
    <span>Shou</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” Hizashi reached over and intertwined his fingers with his husband’s. Shouta just closed his eyes, looking exhausted. Hizashi squeezed his hand, trying to convey some comfort that couldn’t be said out loud. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m ok.” Shouta rubbed his hand against the dark smears under his eyes, brushing away the loose strands of hair that had escaped the tie at the nape of his neck. “Honestly, it was the whole spirit nonsense that got out of hand. Bad memories were just the tip of the iceberg.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hizashi closed his laptop with his free hand, frowning. He took off his headphones as well, setting them on the bedside table before returning his full attention to him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What </span>
  <em>
    <span>happened</span>
  </em>
  <span>?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Slowly, Shouta recounted the night’s events to him. His voice stayed the same for most of it, from the initial spirit contact to their realization with Boil, to Admiral Zhao and Boil’s escape, to the aftermath of it all. His brows drew tighter together the more he spoke. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The ambulance and police finally showed up about ten minutes after the fight.” Shouta shook his head, a pinched look crossing his face. “I didn’t catch the hero name on Manual’s partner, but he was in critical condition by the time he was loaded into the ambulance. Manual looked like he had at least third-degree burns and a concussion.” He shifted against the pillows at his back, absentmindedly scratching Ashes’ head as the kitten curled up next to him.  “Honestly, I think the only reason Manual was even conscious was because Aang healed him.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He’s a brave kid.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta groaned, faintly exasperated.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He’s a little </span>
  <em>
    <span>too</span>
  </em>
  <span> brave, and that’s the problem.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“At least you have experience with that,” Hizashi said, giving him a small, amused smile. Shouta snorted.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Why is it that </span>
  <em>
    <span>I </span>
  </em>
  <span>always get the self-sacrificial ones,” he griped without any real heat behind it. Hizashi leaned sideways into him, letting him drop his head on his shoulder.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Because you care too much to let them continue to hurt themselves,” he said honestly. “I think it’s one of your better traits.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span> Shouta hummed quietly. For a moment, it was quiet, broken only by Ashes’ raspy purring at the gentle scratching she received from her favorite human.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t know if that helped tonight.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hizashi picked up his laptop to place on his nightstand, noting to himself to remember to plug it in. It was almost 3 am at this point. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Why?” he asked, turning back. “What’s wrong?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m an </span>
  <em>
    <span>idiot.</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Normally I’d scold you for being self-deprecating, but you sound genuinely upset about this. Why?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He was in a </span>
  <em>
    <span>war</span>
  </em>
  <span>, Hizashi.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hizashi felt his heart drop in his chest.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“How do you know?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta rubbed his eyes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Because that’s what he told Zhao. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Admiral</span>
  </em>
  <span> Zhao, I might add. That the war was over, and they didn’t need to fight anymore.” He glanced up, eyes filled with unease. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>Think</span>
  </em>
  <span> about that, Hizashi. Aang wasn’t just an average soldier, he was important enough that an Admiral in the military knew him personally and wanted to </span>
  <em>
    <span>torture him for it.”</span>
  </em>
  
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s… pretty serious,” Hizashi admitted quietly. Shouta sighed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I should have seen it,” he muttered. “I knew he was used to combat, I </span>
  <em>
    <span>saw</span>
  </em>
  <span> his nightmares, I just...” He heaved out an irritated breath and tucked an errant strand of hair behind one ear. The lamp that lit the room gave his profile a shadowed cast to it, reflecting whatever internal augment he was having with himself. Hizashi sighed and pulled Shouta’s hand onto his lap, gently wrapping both of his own hands around it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You couldn’t have known, Shou. He hasn’t exactly been running around spilling a tragic backstory for everyone to hear. The kid keeps to himself.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Still,” Shouta insisted stubbornly. “Now that Zhao is involved, as well as Iwayama, both myself </span>
  <em>
    <span>and</span>
  </em>
  <span> Aang have personal stakes in this mission.” He squeezed Hizashi’s hands lightly. “This could go very badly very quickly. I don’t want to bring something up from his past that could distract him in the field.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hizashi nodded in agreement.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“This Zhao seems like a piece of work.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, </span>
  <em>
    <span>he is.</span>
  </em>
  <span>” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta sounded so grouchy with that statement that Hizashi couldn’t help but snort, ducking his head. Shouta peered sideways at him, the faintest smile tugging at his lips in response.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You should get some sleep,” he said, soft. “Sorry for keeping you up.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hizashi rolled his eyes fondly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Look who’s talking.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Fair enough.” Shouta slunk down further in the bed so he could lay down normally. A grim expression pulled at his mouth, and he paused. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Go to sleep, Shouta,” Hizashi chided. He leaned over to switch off the lamp, plunging the room into darkness with only the moon illuminating through their window.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m worried,” Shouta quietly said almost a full minute later, in the blunt manner he approached most of his life with.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hizashi silently sighed and propped himself up on one elbow to show he was still listening. His husband would </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> sleep until he finished whatever thought his mind was dwelling on, and that would be supremely unhelpful for both of them come morning.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“About what?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta looked up at him, dark eyes somber in the half-light of their bedroom.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Someone put the weight of the world on that kid’s shoulders, and I don't know how to tell him to let it go.”</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>Aang slept poorly that night.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He’d gotten used to sleeping alone after the War had ended. Not entirely, as he still had Appa and Momo, but it wasn’t the same as the year spent with Katara and Sokka and then Toph and Zuko and Suki-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Or before that, when he’d never been alone because he had the whole temple, at least up until they told him he was the Avatar-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang gritted his teeth, his eyes flickering open once more.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was hard, not thinking on nights when he was alone. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang rolled over, glancing at the window where the moon had previously hung. It had almost sunk all the way down in the sky at this point. It would be dawn in an hour or so. He groaned softly, rubbing at his eyes in frustration. He was exhausted and sore and his eyes still burned from the smoke but he still was </span>
  <em>
    <span>not sleeping</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>...maybe Zhao had gotten to him more than he’d initially thought. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>In all honesty, Aang didn’t remember much from that night at the Northern Water Tribe. He remembered waking up in an icy cave after getting kidnapped by Zuko. And sure, it was funny </span>
  <em>
    <span>now</span>
  </em>
  <span> because he could tease Zuko about it, but he had been </span>
  <em>
    <span>so scared</span>
  </em>
  <span> when it happened because </span>
  <em>
    <span>he had to be there this time when the Fire Nation came-</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He remembered the flight back on Appa, the confrontation with Zhao, the twin koi fish, the skies going dark…</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And he remembered stepping into the pool and losing himself, consumed with so much unearthly </span>
  <em>
    <span>rage</span>
  </em>
  <span> that it took him over completely, simply a vessel for this ancient spirit to roar his </span>
  <em>
    <span>fury</span>
  </em>
  <span> and </span>
  <em>
    <span>vengeance </span>
  </em>
  <span>out into the night.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>La had taken the energy he’d willingly given and destroyed </span>
  <em>
    <span>everything</span>
  </em>
  <span> in his path. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>How many fire nation soldiers died that night? How many were crushed under the ice or drowned in the wake of La’s brutal and overwhelming onslaught?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>...Aang didn’t know. He only remembered who he was because La let him go, returning him to himself on the icy wall of the tribe he’d so fiercely defended. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The ocean was vast, old, and powerful, Aang learned that night. And it had no mercy. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>So what did that make him?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He startled at the soft brush of fur against his knee. He pushed himself up onto his elbows, meeting the reflective gaze of the orange cat sitting next to him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Mrrrp</span>
  </em>
  <span>, said Marmalade.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang reached out a hesitant hand and the cat immediately obliged by bumping his head against the outstretched fingers. He exhaled softly, smoothing the fur over the thick ruff until the cat was purring insistently, leaning into the gentle touch.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Carefully, he laid down once more, arranging the blanket so it was no longer tangled around him. Marmalade yawned, showing an impressive array of teeth, before clambering up Aang’s legs to settle into a furry, rumbling ball somewhere on his stomach. Aang closed his eyes. Masters Yamada and Aizawa were just over in the next room.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Maybe he wasn’t quite alone.</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>Izuku almost crashed face first into the door frame first thing upon stepping into the common room. His sleep-deprived mind caught up to him about five seconds too late, just in time for him to make a rather undignified squeak at the sudden stop.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Across the room at the kitchen’s table, Shinsou gave him an extremely unimpressed look over his bowl of cereal. Izuku pointed at him as threateningly as he could while sporting bedhead and a pair of old All Might sweats.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Don’t say a thing.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“About what?” Shinsou drawled, returning his attention to his phone. Izuku grumbled and made his way into the kitchen. He flipped on the electric kettle and started preparing a cup of tea while the appliance hissed and heated up.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Apparently done with his cereal, Shinsou dropped the bowl and spoon off in the sink, sliding around Izuku to reach for the coffee pot. He poured himself a new cup, snorting at the disgusted sounds Izuku made every time he got to see his caffeine habits in action.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The water boiled soon enough, and Izuku poured the appropriate amount in his own cup before stirring and returning to the table once more. He stifled a yawn.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What time is it?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shinsou swiped a thumb over his screen.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“4:53.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Mrgh.” Izuku plonked himself down in the chair next to his friend, rubbing sleep out of itchy eyes and taking in the relaxing scent of his tea. “Ok. That gives me like- two hours before I have to do stuff for class?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shinsou blinked at him, slow and sleepy, like a cat that couldn’t be bothered by the rest of the world around him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Midoriya, it's Saturday. We don’t have class.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku went a little cross-eyed staring down at the golden-brown surface of his tea.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Right. Yes. I knew that.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His friend raised an eyebrow at him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Usually </span>
  <em>
    <span>I’m </span>
  </em>
  <span>the one completely out of sync with the natural passage of time. What’s up?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t even </span>
  <em>
    <span>know</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” Izuku groaned, tangling a hand through his thick curls. He leaned forwards to let his head </span>
  <em>
    <span>clunk</span>
  </em>
  <span> onto the table in front of him. “Weird dreams, I guess. I’ve been having them for the past week. No clue why.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Huh.” Shinsou took a sip of his coffee. “Maybe it's your brain’s way of finally getting back at you for all those broken bones.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“...that is </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> helpful.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I am an unhelpful person. You should know this by now.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku grumbled and sat back in his chair, reaching for his tea.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Why am I friends with you.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You hunted me down and didn't take no for an answer,” Shinsou snorted. “I had no say in the matter.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku laughed under his breath, bringing his tea up to his face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Seriously though.” Shinsou locked his phone for the moment and set it down on the table, looking askance at Izuku. “Getting no sleep because of dreams is no good. Do you need to talk about it?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A surge of gentle affection warmed his heart at his friend’s words. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t think they’re nightmares,” he assured him, smiling softly to show his gratitude to Shinsou for his offer to broach a topic he wasn’t always comfortable with. “They’re just… weird.” He yawned, thinking back to the feeling he’d had every time when he’d been woken up yet again. “It’s like I’ve got too many things going on inside my head.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shinsou pursed his lips thoughtfully.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Either that or too many people. Maybe you’re possessed.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku jerked, steadying his cup before he could spill his tea and stared at Shinsou.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What did you say?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His friend gave him a bizarre look.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Are</span>
  </em>
  <span> you possessed?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What? No, before that.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eyebrows climbed higher into the purple hairline.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Too many people in your brain?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Huh.</span>
  </em>
  <span>” Izuku stared off into space. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That thing at the Sports Festival happened, didn’t it? What if there was more he could do with that? Could he actively contact past users of One for All? What about All Might himself, he was still alive and that would be kind of morbid if he had a dead quirk version of him in his head. He should probably ask him about this.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Aaand you’re muttering again. Hey.” Shinsou snapped his fingers in front of Izuku’s face, startling him for about the fourth time this morning. “You good?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku squinted at him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Had a minor existential crisis, but yeah, I think I’ll be ok.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh good,” Shinsou said, rolling his eyes. “Glad I could be of service.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And he left it at that. Shinsou was nice in that way.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A few hours passed down there in the common room. Eventually the time for morning people to wake up rolled around, finding people like Iida and Kirishima making their way downstairs. The time for normal people to wake up came not too long after that, and before Izuku knew it, pretty much everyone was at breakfast.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Uraraka, do you mind if I use the last of the nuts you brought back last weekend? I wanted to try a new cookie recipe today.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, yeah! I was going to run to the store today anyways. Did you need anything else?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No, but thank you.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’ll come with you, Uraraka. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Kero</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yo, Uraraka! Can you buy me some chips?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Only if you give me the money for them </span>
  <em>
    <span>now</span>
  </em>
  <span>, Ashido.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Awww…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Only a few heads looked up when the main door to the dorms opened, the rest engaged in various conversations. Izuku glanced up from his quiet conversation with Todoroki just in time to see the tall figure of their homeroom teacher enter the common room. The now-familiar face of Aang trailed behind him. The monk was dressed in soft orange robes today; the one’s Izuku had briefly seen him in yesterday morning. He also looked absolutely exhausted; his normally straight posture slumped slightly and bearing dark circles under his eyes. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aizawa had his hands tucked into the pockets of his civilian clothing. It had been weird seeing him in clothes other than his hero costume the first few days of dorm life, but in all honesty they didn’t differ </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> much from what he already wore. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Their teacher cleared his throat, catching everyone’s attention fairly easily.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m leaving Aang here in the dorms for the day. Don’t traumatize him and don’t trick him into doing anything illegal.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Behind him, Aang swiveled to stare at Aizawa, looking concerned and a bit incredulous. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The teacher turned and said something to the monk too softly for Izuku to hear. The look eased off of Aang’s face and he nodded. Aizawa patted him on the shoulder before heading for the door.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A few curious looks were thrown Aang’s way, but the majority of the class went back to what they were doing without much fuss. Izuku waved at Aang in a silent invitation. The monk threw a tired grin his way before moving across the common room (dodging an overly enthusiastic Dark Shadow) to sit in the empty chair across from him at the table.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Aang!” Uraraka hopped over to lean on the table. “You’re back!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s only been like, a day,” Aang said, full of good humor. “I was here yesterday.” Uraraka waved her hand dismissively. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You know what I mean.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Beside Izuku, Todoroki made a noise like a dissatisfied cat and got up, taking his empty cup with him. Shinsou watched him go with raised eyebrows, his gaze flicking from him, to Aang, who was now conversing with Uraraka, and over to Izuku. Izuku shrugged. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You look extremely tired.” That was Iida, who had swung by to greet Aang. “Are you alright?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’ve never really dealt well with a lack of sleep,” Aang said wryly. “I’ll be ok.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku huffed a soft laugh in commiseration. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Are you going to be staying here all day?” he asked.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ah, no.” Aang rubbed the back of his head, looking distracted. “Master Aizawa was going to take me to the hospital later.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He immediately had everyone at the table’s attention on him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You’re going to the hospital?” Uraraka cried. “Are you ok?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang looked startled by the sudden outburst.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m fine,” he placated, raising up his hands in a “hold on” gesture. He wavered, expression turning solemn. “Some heroes got seriously injured last night. Manual and Coil. I wanted to… check in on them,” he finished. His voice had gotten very quiet.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Manual is in the hospital?” Iida asked sharply. Aang looked over to him at the outburst, surprised. The taller student looked shaken.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah. Do you know him?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Iida adjusted his glasses, subdued. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes. I did my last internship with him in Hosu. It was…” he grimaced. “Less than optimal.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s a word for it,” Izuku heard Todoroki mutter under his breath behind him as he passed by with a cup of tea. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Do you know what happened?” Iida asked. The monk studied him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>For an instant, something flickered behind his eyes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No, sorry,” Aang said, sounding regretful. “I just found out because of Master Aizawa.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And with that, the conversation turned away from morbid feelings and was led into a discussion about a new album that had recently come out. Their conversation attracted Jirou and Tokoyami’s attention but lost Shinsou and Aang, the former disappearing to who knows where and the latter getting beckoned over by Kaminari and Sero to apparently settle something with Ashido.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku tuned out the conversation for the most part in favor of a different line of troubled thought. He stared at Aang across the room, contemplative.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Why did he feel like Aang was lying?</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>Elsewhere, someone reviewed their plans once again.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>One more week until the Licensing Exam.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Exams, Anxieties, and Everything Else</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>welp</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Before they knew it, the Provisional Licensing Exam had rolled around.</p><p>“Holy shit, look how <em> big </em> that is!” Kirishima said, shading his eyes as he gazed upwards at the National Dagoba Arena. It was an impressive sight, reflective peaks and striped supporting beams encircling the entire hippodrome. The rest of 1-A milled about as the last of them made their way off the bus. Aang trailed behind them, sticking close to Master Aizawa. </p><p>“Hizashi’s busy today and I don’t trust the universe in general, so I’m bringing you along with me to the exam,” the teacher had said that morning. “You can watch up in the stands with me. Shouldn’t be any trouble. But wear your gear: just in case some Commission lackey tries to say you’re not allowed in.”</p><p>Aang fidgeted slightly, tapping his folded fan against his leg. He had an odd amount of nervous energy today, for some reason. </p><p>“Dude, is that a fan?” That was Sero, who gave him an appraising look as he fiddled with it. He glanced over at the taller kid, who appeared genuinely curious. The rest of the class was talking to each other in low tones- it seemed that he wasn’t the only one on edge today, though honestly <em> he </em> had the least reason to be. <em> He </em>wasn’t taking the test.</p><p>“Oh, yeah, it is.” Aang flicked his wrist, snapping the silvery material open. “It’s for close quarters.”</p><p>“But why a fan?” Sero frowned, tilting his head. “How is that useful?”</p><p>‘Well, I can direct more air for one.” Aang tossed the fan between his hands, forming a blur as it flipped. “Also, Mei made it out of a really strong material.” He stopped the weapon’s movement and tapped a fingernail on both the spines and the paneling in between them with a gentle <em> clink </em> . “It’s not sharp, like a lot of war fans are, but it can block strikes without too much trouble.” He grinned. “Plus, one of the most terrifying people I know carries two war fans. Watch <em> her </em> fight and you’ll never doubt their usefulness again.”</p><p>“Huh.” Sero looked suitably impressed. Aang smiled and flipped the fan shut before clipping it to the back of his belt. His collapsed staff rested on the other hip.</p><p>“Listen up,” their teacher commanded. The talk died down, all the students looking at him expectantly as he spoke.</p><p>“This exam is an important step for all of you. If you pass, you’ll essentially be semi-pros.” The class chattered among themselves momentarily, clearly excited by the prospect. </p><p>“But remember-” Aizawa caught their gazes, serious. “That means you’ll be responsible for people’s lives. Because that’s what pros do, underneath everything the media and fans tell you. It’s about saving people.”</p><p>It grew silent.</p><p>“You’ll have a lot more responsibility.” Aizawa looked across at the subdued class, meeting now-nervous gazes. “But you <em> can </em> do this. Keep telling yourselves that.”</p><p>“Just how difficult is this exam?” Aang asked once Aizawa had stepped back from his students once more. A cheer and general noise rose up in the background again as a few students from a different school apparently introduced themselves. Aizawa flicked his gaze his way, keeping an eye on the interactions across the pavement.</p><p>“Over fifteen hundred students enter the exam each year. Less than half get their licenses.” Aizawa lifted a shoulder in a half-shrug. “But in the wake of things like the Hero Killer and All Might’s retirement, the stakes have gotten even higher. If I had to guess, I’d say that less than 20% of this year’s batch will actually end up with a provisional license.”</p><p>“So, very difficult.” Aang surmised, watching a tall, intense young man from the other school walk away with his classmates.</p><p>“Mhmm.”</p><p>“<em> Eraser </em>, is that you?!” A loud, brash voice echoed out, directed at the two of them.</p><p>“Oh god,” Aizawa muttered.</p><p>“Eraser!” Aang turned to look for the origin of the voice, bemused. A woman in vibrant orange and blues who looked to be about the same age as Aizawa was power-walking over to them, a playful gleam in her eye. “I’d recognize that grumpy face anywhere. Come give me a hug!”</p><p>“<em> No </em>.”</p><p>“Aww, don’t be like that.” She grinned up at him, hands on her hips. Aizawa just sighed. “It’s been <em> ages </em> since I got to see you. TV doesn’t count.”</p><p>“You say that literally every time we meet up,” the teacher said dryly.</p><p>“And it’s true every time.” The woman leaned forwards and poked him in the chest. “But enough of that. Look at my second years!” She turned and waved behind her to a group of students nearby. “Kids! Over here!”</p><p>“So who is that?” Aang asked under his breath, grinning at the exasperated look on Aizawa’s face. </p><p>“Ms. Joke. Underground Hero and teacher at Ketsubutsu Academy. Our agencies were pretty close when both of us were just starting out on the pro scene.”</p><p>“So we got to see each other every day,” Ms. Joke said cheerfully, apparently having overheard. “We’ve got the bond of a lifetime!”</p><p>“<em> Joke. </em>” </p><p>“-must have been rough, especially with the kidnapping part-” Aang overheard from the throng of students that was gathered around their class. He quickly glanced in that direction, attention caught. His brow furrowed. Kidnapping?</p><p>“Fuck off, you creep.” And just like that, it was dead quiet. Bakugou, who’d just spoken, glared at a black-haired kid from Ms. Joke’s class, whose hand was tilted like it had just been slapped away. “And stop pretending. You’re not fooling anyone.” The kid cocked his head, something sharp glinting in his eyes as Kirishima immediately scolded Bakugou for being rude. The blond just huffed and walked away, Kirishima following after an apologetic glance thrown in the student’s direction.</p><p>“Hmm,” Aizawa hummed in the whispered lull that came after. “They’re starting early this year.”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“You’ll see when the exam starts.” The teacher raised his voice to address his students once more. “1-A, get to orientation. It’ll be starting before long and you all still have to change into your hero costumes. Go on.”</p><hr/><p>Then inside of the stadium was honestly even more impressive than the outward appearance.</p><p>“It’s like a whole <em> city </em>,” Aang exclaimed, leaning on the backs of the seats in front of him as he gazed delightedly out at the view below him. “How long did it take for them to build all this?”</p><p>The exam grounds stretched out for an incredible distance underneath the stadium. Rocky terrain covered the closest side, contrasting with the cityscape and natural scenery behind it. </p><p>There weren’t many people sitting in the stands other than the three of them. Ms. Joke had tagged along with Aang and Aizawa once their classes had both gone off to change and get ready to start the exam. She’d clearly known him for a long time, based on how much Aizawa tolerated her teasing. Some friendships were just like that.</p><p>“So why aren’t you down in the Box of Doom, kiddo?” Ms. Joke asked, leaning back in her own seat. Aang was unsure which of them had decided to sit three seats apart. Well, he wasn’t going to question it if he didn’t have to sit between them.</p><p>“Aang’s a visiting student,” Aizawa said, barely even glancing her way as Aang paused to think. “He’s not looking to get his license currently.”</p><p>“True, most students wait to take the test their second year,” Ms. Joke said easily, accepting the statement. “But of course, you expelled your last class, didn’t you? No 2-A to take the test this year.”</p><p>“You expelled an entire class?” Aang asked in surprise, looking away from the metal “Box of Doom” down on the field to pin the teacher with a disbelieving stare. Ms. Joke cackled.</p><p>“He did! I actually can’t believe you still have twenty students this year, Eraser. You must actually like the class this time. Good kids?”</p><p>Aizawa snorted.</p><p>“They’re reckless, undisciplined, and much too loud.”</p><p>“That means he cares about them,” Ms. Joke said in a stage whisper, leaning around Aizawa to wink at Aang. The teacher rolled his eyes, but Aang could see the faintest amusement hidden underneath his scarf.</p><p>Below them, the hiss of pneumatics and groaning of steel signaled that the test was about to begin. The box unfolded where it lay, revealing the fifteen hundred or so students that looked just as surprised by this turn of events as Aang had been.</p><p>“So what do they have to do?” Aang asked, settling back into his seat as the participants started moving, mostly congregating in fairly small groups. It was pretty chaotic. There were screens placed up all over the seating area, giving the audience several different zoomed in views of the arena. He could see 1-A grouping up together, Midoriya talking and gesturing in the high-speed manner he always possessed. It looked like Bakugou, Kirishima, and Kaminari were going off together, while Todoroki also legged it in a different direction after exchanging a quick word with Midoriya.</p><p>“This year it’s essentially a speed focused version of dodgeball,” Aizawa said, reading over a sheet of paper attached to a clipboard. The few people in suits scattered around the stadium also all seemed to be carrying at least one of them. He frowned at it. “Every student has three markers and six balls that will set them off. First hundred to finish pass.”</p><p>“They’re really cutting down on people this year.” Ms. Joke fiddled with the end of her orange headscarf, a more serious expression crossing her face for once. “Commission is getting spooked. Mmm.” She cocked her head back at Aizawa. “Did you warn your class?”</p><p>“Didn’t see the need.”</p><p>She whistled lowly.</p><p>“Gutsy. You have that much faith in them?”</p><p>“Yes,” Aizawa simply replied.</p><p>In the distance, a klaxon sounded once. The vibrant swarm of students immediately responded to the sound and rushed into battle.</p><p>“Wow, they’re all going for your class,” Aang noticed. He chewed his bottom lip, a little uneasy at just how <em> many </em> of the students down there were headed for the huddle that was 1-A.</p><p>“They do every year,” Aizawa said dryly. “It’s practically a tradition at this point. Go for the kids everyone already knows about.”</p><p>There went Midoriya, streaking out in front of his classmates. He leapt high, green energy sparking off his form as he twisted midair and slashed a swinging kick at the flurry of projectiles headed in his direction. Guarding the other flank, Dark Shadow rose up, silhouetted against the blue sky as Tokoyami guided the shield of darkness over his nearest friends.</p><p>“Special moves already? You really weren’t kidding about this class,” Ms. Joke commented as the scrum continued. A brief <em> boom </em> of bassy noise was followed by a stinging veil of white liquid as Jirou and Ashido traded off defensive positions.</p><p>“They’ve been through a lot, Emi.” Aizawa lowered his voice, looking intently in her direction. “The League isn’t going to stop just because their leader is out of the way. I want them to be able to protect themselves- legally as well as physically.”</p><p>Ms. Joke sighed and in a rare show on both their parts, she leaned over the distance between them to rest a hand on his shoulder.</p><p>“I’m sorry, Shouta,” she said quietly, in a voice meant for the two of them alone. Aang subtly drifted a bit further away under the pretense of getting a closer look at a different screen. “About all of that.”</p><p>“We did always say that we’d dig up some huge secret on the hero scene as undergrounders,” Aizawa murmured. “Does this mean I win the bet for finding one first?”</p><p>“Not like <em> that, </em> you horrible, depressing man.”</p><p>He laughed under his breath, gruff and quiet.</p><p>“No one’s moving down there,” Aang called out, gaze pointedly fixed on the battle down below that had slowly ground to a tense halt as the students cautiously circled each other. “Looks like a stalemate.”</p><p>Then it was abruptly <em> no longer </em>a stalemate as the ground rumbled beneath them. Aang tilted back on his feet, surprised, as the earth cracked and groaned under the students’ feet, causing panic and commotion alike as groups were scattered apart, some dashed onto the rocks as they shifted.</p><p>“Ah, that’ll be Shindo,” Ms. Joke observed. “That’s his finishing move.” Aang squinted at the screen to see who was at the middle of the wave, finally spotting the black-haired student from earlier that Bakugou had told off.</p><p>
  <em> He’s like an earthbender! Cool! </em>
</p><hr/><p>“That was <em> not </em> cool,” Hitoshi said, wiping dust and grime out of his eyes with a grimace. Maybe he should add some goggles to his hero costume.</p><p>Above him, Midoriya risked a quick glance above the rubble before dropping down beside him.</p><p>“We’re cut off,” he said. “I can’t really see anyone else in our class.” Hitoshi scowled and got to his feet from his kneeling position.</p><p>“We need to find them. Alone like this, we’re sitting ducks. Anyone who ever wanted to take a potshot at UA is going to be gunning for us.”</p><p>“Right.” Midoriya had that intense, focused look on his face that Hitoshi had learned either led to something really cool, or something absolutely disastrous. Sometimes both. “Let’s try to stay low. Higher up is a better vantage point, but the instant we show our faces we’ll be found by everyone in the area,” he said, gesturing to the still-unstable rocky terrain that had formed after Shindo’s crazy-ass stunt.</p><p>Hitoshi refastened his vocal modulator. </p><p>“After you, team leader.”</p><hr/><p>Above them, unnoticed by anyone else in the arena, a girl with long blonde hair and a black catsuit watched them intently.</p><p>So sad. She had planned on jumping cute little Midoriya here, but it would probably be too risky with his purple friend so close. His quirk was <em> nasty </em> and she couldn’t afford to get caught in it. She still had to make it to part two of the test. That was when the <em> real </em> event would start.</p><p>She wondered if it would actually draw the other important cutie out. Boss was really grumpy about working with their new friend, but they were having so much fun already! </p><p>Well, she should get moving. She had people to play tag with.</p><p>She slipped away.</p><hr/><p>Aang, who had been cheerfully watching the 1-A kids slowly find each other again and team up, quickly diverted his attention to the far side of the arena as he felt the wind in the arena change. </p><p>“Who’s <em> that? </em>” he asked, shading his eyes. A whirlwind was picking up over a portion of the city area. It was messy and wild, swirling around the epicenter with fervor. There was a tall figure in the midst of it. Aizawa followed his gaze.</p><p>“That would be Inasa. He actually placed first in the recommendation exams for UA, but he declined the acceptance spot for some reason. Went to Shiketsu instead. And yes, that’s a wind quirk he has,” he said, correctly determining the reason for Aang’s interest.</p><p>“He’s an airbender?” Aang asked delightedly. Aizawa squinted at him.</p><p>“...I suppose so.”</p><p>By the spirits, it had been <em> so long </em> since he’d felt the movement of another airbender. Aang breathed out, closing his eyes and reaching out with his own wind. </p><p>Hmm. He wrinkled his nose. The wind the other airbender was producing was harsh and chaotic. His sally slid around the edges of the whirlwind, not acknowledged or even <em> noticed </em>, it seemed, other than another tug on the surrounding pressure.</p><p>A faint seed of disappointment bloomed in Aang’s chest as he reopened his eyes. That was <em> dangerous </em> . One of the first things airbenders learned was how to move their air <em> safely </em>, without stealing the breath from themselves and potentially everyone nearby. How had this one never learned that?</p><p>Then he blinked as he caught his first real glimpse of the person in question. It was the student he’d seen earlier; the one that had jumped in when Kirishima had led the class in a cheer. </p><p>“What is he <em> wearing? </em>”</p><p>Aizawa raised an eyebrow, following Aang’s gaze once more.</p><p>“Inasa?”</p><p>“Why is he so <em> bulky? </em> ” Aang balked, looking the entire ensemble over critically now that he could fully see Inasa, high above the arena, supported by a pillar of his own wind. “Isn’t that heavy? And <em> hot? </em> And why is he wearing a cape?”</p><p>“You wear a sash,” Aizawa pointed out, faintly amused. Aang nodded, exasperated, and pulled the fabric of said sash out from behind him, holding it up for him to view. </p><p>“And it’s cut to a specific length so it can’t wrap around my torso or get in the way. Also, my usual robes are modified.” He risked a quick glance in Ms. Joke’s direction to see if she was listening. Fortunately, she seemed to be busy cheering on her students. Aang dropped his voice a bit quieter to be safe. “Master robes are longer and have more fabric, but they’re sewn to follow the natural rhythm of an airbender’s movement.” He held one arm out, motioning to about where the sleeve would fall. “Sleeves are wider and the base of the robes drops either to their feet or a little above them when a master is standing still. It’s designed to hide their stance so opponents have a difficult time predicting them.”</p><p>“I see.” Aizawa’s lips twitched, not even attempting to hide his amusement at this point. Aang scowled across the arena, viscerally offended by the design.</p><p>“How does he <em> move </em>.”</p><p>“I’m sure he thought it looked cool,” Ms. Joke snickered, apparently having caught at least part of Aang’s grievance.</p><p>“Though that genuinely is an issue on the pro scene,” Aizawa added thoughtfully. “With media having such an enormous influence on ratings and public reception, many heroes settle for costumes that aren’t practical or are actively a hindrance to their work in favor of “looking good.”</p><p>“Especially women,” Ms. Joke pointed out, tilting a hand. “I remember getting pressure to wear a crop top or heeled boots when I was first starting out. And I’m an underground pro- we don’t even get that much attention, media wise.”</p><p>Aang slumped back in his seat.</p><p>“Heroes are <em> so confusing </em>,” he muttered.</p><p>For some reason, Master Aizawa and Ms. Joke thought that was <em> hilarious </em>.</p><hr/><p>Izuku gratefully took another swig from his water bottle.</p><p>Well, that had been a <em> spectacularly stressful </em> end to the first part of the exam. He, Sero, Uraraka and Shinsou had finished together fairly early on in the grand scheme of the test. Which meant they all got to watch nervously as the rest of their class (barring the few that had already finished) apparently all decided to wait until the <em> last possible second </em> to pass. </p><p>“Does anyone know what the next part of the test is going to be like?” Uraraka asked nervously, twisting her helmet in her hands. She’d managed to retrieve it after losing it the first round during Shindo’s earthquake.</p><p>“Probably something less combat based, <em> kero </em>,” Tsuyu said, tilting her head. “Fighting is only one part of the job.”</p><p>“Whatever it is, I just hope it <em> starts soon </em>,” Shinsou muttered into his granola bar. Iida swung by, chattering about proper energy levels and handed him another one before marching over to where Momo was gratefully sucking down a juice pouch to replenish her lost fat levels. Shinsou squinted at the Class Rep’s retreating back before tossing it to Izuku, who caught it after only a second of fumbling.</p><p>“Whoa, what the fuck was <em> that </em> about?”</p><p>Izuku sidestepped a chatting Sero and Kaminari to follow Shinsou’s pointing finger, puzzled. Apparently Shinsou hadn’t been watching Iida, but rather the conversation behind him. </p><p>Inasa was stalking away from Todoroki, the latter looking shell-shocked and burying shaking hands into the fabric of his jumpsuit. Izuku immediately pushed through the crowd to make it to his friend’s side.</p><p>“Hey, Todoroki, are you ok?” Todoroki flinched as he spoke, prompting a worried frown from Izuku. “What did Inasa say?”</p><p>“It.. it was nothing. I’m fine.”</p><p>“Yeah, bullshit,” Shinsou said bluntly, having caught up. “What did the tall bastard do?”</p><p>Todoroki hesitated, still keeping an eye on the Shiketsu student’s retreating back. Haltingly, he recounted the conversation to the two of them, voice quiet and bordering on ashamed.</p><p>“Alright,” Shinsou said mildly, once he had finished. “Midoriya, stay here. I’m going to go give them a reason to fail me.”</p><p>“<em> Wait </em>.” Todoroki’s hand shot out, grasping Shinsou’s sleeve in a rare show of desperate emotion. “Please, just let it go. I-I don’t want to make it worse.”</p><p>“Todoroki, he’s convinced that you’re like your <em> father </em> , after meeting you <em> once </em>!” Izuku said, disbelieving. “That’s not ok!”</p><p>“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Todoroki whispered. Izuku frowned.</p><p>“Still, we’re not going to let him be an asshole to you. We’re your friends.”</p><p>“Then <em> please </em> let it go.” Todoroki shrugged, eyes downcast under two-toned bangs. “Arguing with him won’t help anything.” He turned away. “Excuse me, I’m going to go get some water.”</p><p>“So, we’re definitely committing some first-degree murder, right?” Shinsou said once Todoroki had walked away. “I’ll hold him down, you punch him.”</p><p>Izuku shot him an exasperated look. Shinsou did not look apologetic.</p><p>“Actually..” Izuku thumbed his chin as a thought struck him. “I do have an idea- not one that leads to murder!” he hastily clarified. Shinsou rolled his eyes.</p><p>“Fine. What is it?”</p><p>“Let’s go ask Momo something.”</p><hr/><p>“This seems… excessive,” Aang said hesitantly as the entire arena collapsed and fell into destroyed chaos. “Are all hero tests like this?”</p><p>“Yes, unfortunately,” Aizawa muttered.</p><p>Part two of the test began underneath them. The students now had to rescue “victims” from the remains of the fake city, mimicking responses to a natural disaster or villain attack. With only a hundred of them left, it was a much smaller playing field. </p><p>It was hard to tell, but from the subdued, pleased expression on Master Aizawa’s face, Aang assumed that his students were doing well so far.</p><p>Well. Most of them. Bakugou seemed to be doing a lot of shouting and not a lot of rescuing.</p><p>“They have comms,” Aizawa remarked, looking at a specific screen. Portrayed on it, Midoriya tilted his head while bringing a hand up to his ear before nodding and saying something to his nearby classmates, motioning to a specific pile of rubble. All across the wreckage, he could see different members of 1-A doing the same thing: listening intently to something and reacting to whatever they heard. “Clever. Yaoyorozu must have made them earpieces.”</p><p>Aang was startled from his leaning position after about twenty minutes of this as an explosive <em> boom </em> rocked the arena. Because <em> of course </em> things had to get more complicated.</p><p>Apparently, the “heroes” had to rescue people <em> and </em> fight off villains at the same time. Aang was once again glad that he didn’t have to take this test. </p><p>The students split into three groups: the largest protecting the civilians and getting them out of the line of fire, a smaller one protecting where they had set up their base, and the last one actively engaging the villains on the field. Only a few people were fighting the biggest one- a large man who kind of looked like some of the whales Aang had seen with Katara and Sokka at the Northern Water Tribe.</p><p>And that was where most of the trouble started. </p><hr/><p>Gang Orca shattered his ice, forcing Shouto to dive for cover at the resulting sound waves. He rolled to his feet, ears ringing. He’d just barely gotten out of the way.</p><p>Above him, Inasa continued his wind-propelled assault. He seemed content to stay above the battlefield and not engage directly in combat, instead leaving the work to the air he controlled. To his left, Shindo ducked behind a sheet of rock from the same attack, grimacing.</p><p>Shouto stepped up to hurl another ice attack at the faux villain, trying to keep distance as best he could. He snarled silently as shards of glittering ice exploded in front of him, blocking his field of vision.</p><p>
  <em> Thruuum. </em>
</p><p>He dropped flat to the ground at the next sonic wave, raising his head once it had passed. He heard a strangled yelp of pain behind him and risked a glance in that direction.</p><p>Shindo hadn’t been so lucky and was prone on the ground, gritting his teeth at the uncontrollable tremors that wracked his body.</p><p>“I can’t move,” he hissed, meeting Shouto’s gaze. “I have more resistance to vibrations because of my quirk, but <em> damn </em>.”</p><p>Shouto gave him a curt nod and erected a small shield of ice in front of him. It wasn’t much, especially with the scale of attacks Gang Orca was throwing around, but it should protect him from the worst of debris. Shindo hesitated, surprised, but jerked his chin best he could in grudging thanks.</p><p>Shouto got to his feet, almost losing his balance briefly because of the gale surrounding the area. His ice wasn’t working, so he’d just have to try something else.</p><p>“Inasa!” he shouted as he ran forwards, trying to catch the other student’s attention. “I’m going to use my fire- stop your wind attacks!”</p><p>Inasa gave no sign of having heard him. Shouto gritted his teeth. He’d have to hope this didn’t go terribly, then. He swiped out with his left hand. </p><p>Flames roared across the field.</p><hr/><p>“Come <em> on </em>, Todoroki,” Aang murmured, back up in the stands. He gripped the seat in front of him, tense. “You can do this.”</p><p>Another gout of flame went wild, twisted and fanned by the wind from above. </p><p>Aang felt his irritation at Inasa grow into outright <em> dislike </em>.</p><p>
  <em> That’s not how you airbend! </em>
</p><p>Both of them were completely out of control. Todoroki was visibly annoyed at this point, movements choppy as he tried to redirect his fire to not coincide with the path of the air attacks Inasa continued to deal out, despite their lack of effectiveness. At this rate, they were both putting their allies in danger. </p><p>Aang chewed his bottom lip. It was <em> uncomfortable </em>, how much Todoroki reminded him of an early Zuko. But even Zuko at his worst had never lost control of his fire like this. Someone was going to get hurt, really quickly. And up in the audience, he couldn’t even help.</p><p>Wait… what was that?</p><p>Aang paused, flexing his fingers as he cocked his head, listening. There was… something. Familiar energy wafted up from below, strong and sonorous.</p><p>A spirit?</p><p>His breath caught in his throat as the feeling suddenly <em> intensified </em>, raising a startled hand to his temple and sitting down as his heartbeat stuttered.</p><p>“Aang?”</p><p>The energy <em> rumbled </em> through him so strongly that Aang hunched his shoulders reflexively, gritting his teeth as it reverberated down to his <em> bones </em>. He couldn’t help the small, choked sound he made as pain lanced through his head and chest, digging his fingers into his robes as the aftershocks continued to resonate.</p><p>Faintly, he heard Aizawa’s voice through the ringing noise in his ears. He shook his head at the unpleasant dizzy sensation, sucking in a quick breath through his nose as he attempted to recenter himself.</p><p>“Kid. <em> Aang </em>.” There was a firm hand on his shoulder, grounding him. “What’s wrong?”</p><p>Aang swallowed, tasting iron on his tongue and looked up once more. Aizawa was watching him carefully, dark eyes alight with concern. </p><p>“There’s something coming,” Aang rasped. “Something <em> big </em> . And really, <em> really </em> angry.” He wiped the corner of his mouth with a shaking hand, not noticing the smear of red that came away with it. </p><p>“A spirit?” Aizawa asked, low. His eyes flitted over to Ms. Joke, who was also leaning forwards with a startled look on her face at Aang’s sudden fit. Aang nodded.</p><p>“I’ve never felt anything like this- something is <em> really wrong </em> with it.”</p><p>“What’s <em> that? </em>” Ms. Joke said sharply, staring out over the arena once more. They looked.</p><p>A quake was slowly picking up under everyone’s feet, prompting some puzzled looks from students and exam villains alike. The shudder picked up speed and strength over the next few seconds, until everyone was thrown off their feet as a thunderous rumbling noise split the arena.</p><p>Both Ms. Joke and Master Aizawa shot to their feet as dust rose into the sky, cloaking the field with dark browns and greys. Aang stared, wide-eyed, at the shadowy figure emerging from the center of the cloud.</p><p>The spirit clawed its way out of the earth, long, curved claws raking through stone and debris. It was <em> enormous </em> , a hulking mass of twisted, bubbling flesh, stained black and red. Energy pulsed around its monstrous form, so viscerally <em> wrong </em> that Aang had to bite his tongue at the dark feeling that threatened to choke his breath out of him. </p><p>“Well, I can see it,” Aizawa said grimly. “I’m assuming that’s not a good sign.”</p><p>“Master Aizawa.” Aang turned his beseeching look to the teacher. “I <em> have </em> to get down there. I have no idea what happened to that spirit; it-it's like it's <em> corrupted </em> . But best case, it starts dragging people in the Spirit World which I don’t even know if you <em> have </em> here and worst case it’ll start to <em> eat people </em> . <em> I need to help.” </em></p><p>Aizawa growled, gaze jumping from Aang to the chaos down in the arena, to Ms. Joke. He seemed to come to a decision.</p><p>“<em> Go </em> .” He motioned curtly to Ms. Joke, stance tense. “Come on, we need to shut down the test <em> now </em>.” The woman looked slightly perplexed and on edge from their conversation, but her eyes hardened at his words and she nodded. The two of them dashed off, vaulting seats to get down to the floor level where the Commission's viewing station was located.</p><p>Aang grabbed the collapsed staff off of his belt and snapped it to full length. It whirled open, sleek glider wings flicking out to his sides.</p><p>
  <em> Thanks, Mei. </em>
</p><p>He let the wind carry him as he sprinted forwards the few steps he could before leaping into the air.</p><p>Aang flew into the arena.</p><hr/><p>Shouto picked himself off of the ground with a grimace.</p><p>
  <em> What the hell was that? </em>
</p><p>Another burst of fire was <em> yanked </em> away from him by Inasa. Shouto hissed a sharp breath out through his teeth. Did he even <em> care </em> about the test or was he just trying to <em> screw with him?! </em></p><p>“There’s something else on the field!” Momo said through the comms, her voice shaking even through the crackling interference. “I’ve lost Midoriya’s team!”</p><p>Shouto froze, ducking down and listening intently.</p><p>“We’re too far away!” That was Kirishima, out of breath. “What is it?”</p><p>“I don’t know, but I don’t think it’s part of the test.”</p><p>“Why, what’s going on?” That was Ojiro, normally calm voice sharp with concern.</p><p>“The exam volunteers are running away, even the one’s playing villains. They’re telling us to evacuate the area!”</p><p>There was a staticky, coughing sound as Midoriya’s comm picked up.</p><p>“We need help!” Midoriya cleared his throat, sounding just the slightest bit panicky. “This isn’t an exam obstacle. I’ve got injured!”</p><p>Todoroki touched his comm, heart in his throat.</p><p>“Midoriya, where are you.”</p><p>“East side, behind the half collapsed skyscraper.” Midoriya wheezed again, trying to catch his breath. “Shinsou and Uraraka are buried and I think Iida is unconscious. Tsuyu’s team was closest but they’re not responding.”</p><p>“Hold on, Midoriya!”</p><p>Shouto looked up at Inasa, ignoring everything in favor of the fake villain in front of him and the outcome of this exam. A curl of bitter shame bit at his lungs for a moment, remembering how reckless and out of control he himself had been a scant few minutes before.</p><p>He made the easiest decision he had ever made.</p><p>Shouto turned and dashed back into the arena.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. An Internal War</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>*sprints in, yeets chapter, sprints off*</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Like a good majority of times in his life, Izuku had no idea what the </span>
  <em>
    <span>fuck </span>
  </em>
  <span>was going on.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His heartbeat thundered in his ears. He peeked around the corner of the collapsed wall he was hiding behind, trying to catch his breath. The monster was lumbering around about fifteen meters away, seemingly unaware of his presence. He could see the ripped pink fabric of Uraraka’s suit and the tail end of Shinsou’s capture scarf behind it in the far building collapse. Both her and Shinsou had been standing there when that </span>
  <em>
    <span>thing</span>
  </em>
  <span> had burst forth from the ground like some sort of unholy behemoth. Rubble littered that area now, his friends prone and silent. At least by some stroke of extraordinary luck, there hadn’t been any exam volunteers in this section of the arena. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku glanced down at the torn fabric of his hero costume before gingerly letting go of his arm. The bleeding had slowed a little, and from the amount of it he probably hadn’t hit anything vital. Iida, on the other hand...</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku turned back to his other friend, kneeling beside him once more and making sure his head was supported against </span>
  <em>
    <span>something</span>
  </em>
  <span>. He had dragged him as far away from the carnage that was formerly their survey area as he could. Iida’s helmet was missing, as well as his glasses. Blood seeped from the gory spider web torn into the side of his still face, deep bruising shadowing the opposite cheek. It was likely that his helmet had saved his life when the monster hit. The blow might have crushed his skull otherwise. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Yeah, Izuku wasn’t going to be making any safety gear jokes anytime soon.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>At least he was still breathing. He didn’t know if he could say the same for Shinsou and Uraraka yet and that </span>
  <em>
    <span>terrified</span>
  </em>
  <span> him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There was a roar behind him. He whirled around, just in time to see the monster charging in his direction. It had found him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku braced himself, powering up Full Cowl.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Midoriya!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang dropped from the sky in a flash of orange and silver. Izuku only caught a split-second glance of bat-like wings folding into his staff before Aang had twirled it midair, the spinning end whipping up an enormous gust of wind that bowled the monster off its path and onto its side.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The monk’s feet touched down beside him without a sound. Aang nodded to him, looking worried.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Are you ok?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m fine,” Izuku said automatically, covering the gash in his arm with one hand. “Just a scratch. Wait.” He did a double take as his brain caught up with him. “What are you </span>
  <em>
    <span>doing</span>
  </em>
  <span> here?!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The monster got back to its feet with a discordant howl.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I think you need all the help you can get,” Aang said grimly, gripping his staff tighter. “Is anyone else hurt?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku grimaced. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Iida’s unconscious behind us. Shinsou and Uraraka are over there,” he said, pointing. Aang followed his gaze, lips thinning as he did so.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We need to get them out of there. Look.” He pointed as well. “That beam is going to fall any second.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku swore internally as he saw Aang was right.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Incoming!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The pair of them sprang out of the way of the enormous, gnarled hand (paw?) that had attempted to squash them both into paste. Izuku darted for the other side, hoping it would follow him and not go for Iida, helpless to defend himself. Aang took the vertical path, soaring above the monstrosity and landing three wind strikes on its knobbly back on the way back down. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang spun on his toes, narrow-eyed and determined as the monster lunged for him, attention caught.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Fwoom.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The familiar crackling of ice interrupted the monster’s charge. Violent spikes tore up from the frost spreading across the ground as Todoroki arrived on the scene in all his elemental glory, left side already blazing. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The spikes of ice shattered against the monster’s side, doing no apparent damage and failing to pierce its twisted flesh. It was pushed off course, however, and plowed head first into the only remotely-intact building in this area of the arena.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Now there were </span>
  <em>
    <span>no</span>
  </em>
  <span> even remotely-intact buildings in this area. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Why is it always you in these situations, Midoriya?” Todoroki called out over the general crashing sounds. “This is the third time we’ve met like this.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku actually laughed at that, though it was slightly strained. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sorry. My mom always did say I’m a danger magnet.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Any further banter was abruptly cut off by the now </span>
  <em>
    <span>extremely irritated monster</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Whatever it was, it whirled around, a short, spiked tail catching Todoroki right across the ribs. He immediately dodged to the side, avoiding the worst of his, but still winced, pressing a quick hand to the splotch of red slowly growing on the side of his blue jumpsuit.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang blasted it in retaliation, giving Todoroki the space he needed to ice over his side and charge back in. Izuku aimed a kick at the side of the monster’s head, smashing about 10% of Full Cowl into the strike. His bones rattled at so much power roaring through his body, but the payoff was worth it as the monster skidded and flipped over, a sickening </span>
  <em>
    <span>crunch</span>
  </em>
  <span> echoing through the kicked-up dust.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku grinned briefly in breathless victory. That grin dropped off his face as he realized that the monster, now getting to its feet once more as though nothing had happened, had knocked against the pile of building detritus precariously hanging over Shinsou and Uraraka.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The beam creaked. Then snapped, with a sound like breaking glass.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The precarious balance </span>
  <em>
    <span>collapsed</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku threw himself forwards and managed to sandwich himself under the massive girder at the last second. Full Cowl rippled over his arms and legs frantically as his quirk immediately protested at the amount of strain that was suddenly pressing down on his shoulders. He gritted his teeth through the unpleasant buzzing sensation of quirk overuse and the slow burn of trembling muscles under the immense weight of the building. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A weak cough echoed off to his left. He glanced as far as he could with the rubble pinning him in place, and caught a glimpse of purple hair and a white scarf. Shinsou glanced up at him, his eyes half closed and fuzzy, but mercifully awake and alive.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Midoriya,” he rasped. “Wha-?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Don’t move,” Izuku warned. “I don’t know how badly injured you are, and this whole place will- </span>
  <em>
    <span>hnggh</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” His knees shook and buckled for a moment before he caught his breath and braced once more. “This is super… unstable. Just hold still.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shinsou winced, nodding. His lower half was buried underneath a broken pillar, pinning him. Beside him, Izuku could see the mix of pink and black that was Uraraka.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Is… Uraraka alive?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shinsou managed to twist himself far enough over to lightly press his fingertips to his friend's bared neck. He closed his eyes, brow furrowed. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“She’s got a pulse.” Shinsou coughed again, grimacing. “That makes two of us, at least. What about Iida?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He’s alive,” Izuku gasped out. He felt like his spine was compressing in on itself, but he was the only thing in between them and the certain death that awaited if the girder dropped. He could see Todoroki and Aang fighting the monster from here; Todoroki viciously smashed a car-sized block of ice over the thing’s head and Aang whirled above it, silver staff striking blades of air forwards.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Midoriya!” Todoroki called out, eyes widening as he saw the situation the three of them were in. “Hold on- I’ll use my ice to prop up the rubble!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang </span>
  <em>
    <span>yanked</span>
  </em>
  <span> him out of the way, the two of them spinning backwards as a massive claw gouged the spot he’d paused at. The monk leapt up a moment later, staff held behind his back and thrust a hand forwards in a mimicry of a palm strike, fingers curled. A gale force wind erupted from his palm and started to slowly push back the monster. It wailed and screeched as it gradually lost ground, kept away from Izuku and his friends by the sheer force of Aang’s quirk attack. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’ll keep it away from you!” Aang yelled. “Go!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Todoroki sprinted over to Izuku in the space Aang had given to him, skidding to a halt just under the overhang steadily dropping inwards on all of them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Careful,” Izuku gritted out between clenched teeth as Todoroki took in the tenuous balance he was keeping with worried, darting eyes. “It’s… loose.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Where do I freeze?” Todoroki asked, already starting to ice over the connection to the girder on the far side of Izuku’s grip.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“To the-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They both flinched at the thunderous crashing sound that accompanied the arrival of a veritable boulder smashing into the rubble. Over Todoroki’s shoulder, Izuku could see that the monster had apparently gotten frustrated with Aang’s interference. Aang had his back to them, staff at the ready, and was batting the rocks flung in their direction off to the sides. Another chunk exploded into smaller fragments and sprayed over Todoroki’s back, prompting a stumbling wince on his part. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The monk was having some issue with the </span>
  <em>
    <span>size</span>
  </em>
  <span> of the debris that was getting thrown at Izuku and Todoroki. He blasted yet another off course and landed in a wide crouch, glancing worriedly back at where Todoroki was now erecting a pillar of ice to lessen the strain on Izuku.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku felt the mass above him </span>
  <em>
    <span>shift</span>
  </em>
  <span> as the ground shook from the monster’s attacks.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s coming loose!” he gasped. “Todoroki, hurry!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He could barely think at this point. Full Cowl was pushed to its very limit, his own body wracked with shivers as he desperately strained against the pain in his arms, his legs, his back. It was only the quick assistance from Todoroki in the form of another ice block that stopped him from going down on one knee.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Behind Todoroki, he could see Aang, his gaze flitting back and forth around this entire scenario. To the rampaging monster now picking up yet another hunk of fake building, to Izuku as his knees buckled, to Todoroki, his face tense as he tried to figure out how to prop the debris up without hurting any of his friends, and finally out to the edge of the arena, where only the stands could be seen from this exact angle.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He could see the exact moment on Aang’s face when he made his decision.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Todoroki,” Aang called out desperately. “Wall us off with your ice!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Todoroki, and Izuku as well, looked incredulously at the monk.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Aang, I can’t... hold this for much longer!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Please!” Pain and turmoil swirled in Aang’s eyes as he spoke. “You have to block me from view.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Todoroki hesitated, looking at the monstrous leviathan and Aang in front of it, to the stands still visible behind him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Todoroki</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” Aang held his gaze intently when he turned once more. “I know you barely know me and I’ve given you no reason to hold any faith in me, but </span>
  <em>
    <span>please</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” His face was set and determined. “</span>
  <em>
    <span>Trust me.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They locked eyes with each other. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And miraculously, something in Todoroki’s expression hardened and decided. He swirled on his back foot, right arm extended. The familiar crackling sound filled the air as a wall of ice grew up from the freezing mist surrounding his right side and extended in a partial dome over the area they occupied. They were cut off; obscured completely to any outside view.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Or any assistance.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku gritted his teeth as white sparks spasmed in the corners of his field of vision.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Aang... whatever you’re going to do, </span>
  <em>
    <span>do it now</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang </span>
  <em>
    <span>moved.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>...</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>...Holy shit. </span>
  </em>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>Every inch of his being was screaming that this was a bad decision. But… he couldn’t let them die. Not to this corrupted spirit, not when it would be </span>
  <em>
    <span>his fault-</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Sorry, Master Aizawa.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang </span>
  <em>
    <span>stomped</span>
  </em>
  <span>, letting the earth mold itself into shapes it wanted to form, dozens of blocky pillars shooting up from the ground to hold and stabilize the wreckage that was slowly crumpling in on Midoriya’s body as he valiantly struggled to keep it off his friends. Midoriya snapped his head around to stare at him as the pressure vanished, mouth agape in shock, but Aang didn’t have time to explain or placate him. The spirit twisted unnaturally in his direction, glowing red eyes immediately fixated on the source of earthbending as though in recognition.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>When the next rock was hurled in his direction, he held his ground in proper earthbender fashion. Wide stance, </span>
  <em>
    <span>block </span>
  </em>
  <span>to halt the momentum, shift and </span>
  <em>
    <span>strike </span>
  </em>
  <span>to return it the way it came. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Well, you either fly or you fall.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He slid smoothly into his next movement and pulled at the water behind him. It sluiced off the ice from Todoroki’s wall, returning to its liquid form as he whipped it around to slice the next projectile out of the air. The spirit roared as the tail end of his second whip slashed across what was probably its face and galloped with an alarming amount speed in his direction, incensed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang leapt over its strike and bended a curved ridge of ice up in front of him. His shoes slid over the glossy surface as he sank low and surfed the ice around it to the other side, landing next to Todoroki as he gently extracted a shaking Midoriya from the now-stable wreckage.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’ll keep it distracted,” he ordered breathlessly, landing in a neat crouch beside the other teenagers. They both stared at him, wide-eyed, but he just grimaced and hurriedly continued. They could talk later. “Try to weaken it with your fire- it’ll shatter straight through your ice.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Todoroki gave him a short, jerky nod after a second of hesitation.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Practically simultaneously, the two of them flung an inferno at the spirit; Todoroki with his trademark left-handed slash and Aang in a precise series of closed fist punches. Their flames swirled together, almost merging, before they struck and licked over the blackened flesh in a molten waterfall.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The shriek in response rattled through Aang like a saber-toothed mooselion. He winced, feeling the spirit’s energy writhe under his skin and grasp at his ki with frenzied tendrils, despite the mental walls he was putting up. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>What had </span>
  <em>
    <span>happened</span>
  </em>
  <span> to this spirit? It felt… dark. Not just angry, or afraid, or lost. It was like all of its light had been sucked out of it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya dropped in at that moment like a ferocious, verdant comet, driving both feet into the spirit’s head from high above. Aang erected a shield in front of himself and Todoroki with two angled slabs of earth as the resulting shockwave exploded outwards. Aang struck out twice in an earthbending move he’d taken candidly from Toph a few years ago, sending both slabs streaking forwards to explode into debris and dust against the spirit’s open flank.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya tumbled off its back as the spirit roared in both pain and fury. He tucked and rolled to get back on his feet, leaving deep tracks in the ground beneath him as he skidded. Todoroki sprinted to the opposite side in the same moment, climbing a pillar of his ice to get a better vantage point before raining down some super-heated fury of his own. The spirit waffled, caught between two infuriating enemies, but unable to surge forwards to get both of them simultaneously from the intense gale Aang was directing at it. It’s claws tug into the mixed dirt beneath it as it was slowly pushed backwards, howling and leaving deep grooves in the earth.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang risked a glance back at where he’d used his earthbending to hold up the wreckage. Shinsou was no longer pinned, it seemed, and was attempting to clear some of the looser rubble off of an unmoving Uraraka. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>This was taking too long. The spirit wasn’t slowing down at all, and he was worried for Midoriya and Todoroki- they’d been fighting all day already and </span>
  <em>
    <span>must</span>
  </em>
  <span> be tired. Midoriya was clearly slowing down, blood and dust smeared across his almost-feral expression.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>You could end this all in the blink of an eye,</span>
  </em>
  <span> a voice whispered in the back of his head. </span>
  <em>
    <span>But you’re a coward.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>I’m not,</span>
  </em>
  <span> he insisted to himself.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span> He just didn’t want to lose himself again.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He dove over the tail of the spirit as it slashed around again. Air buffeted him upwards so he could yank a long stream of water and slash it through the appendage on its way past. It froze to the ground, prompting only a small tug from the spirit until it was free once more, shattering through his ice as easily as Todoroki’s. There, an opening-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya had jumped up, the green energy normally circling his body sputtering weakly. Aang backpedaled, hastily settling the earth back in before he could hit the other teen, but that moment had given the spirit an opening of its own.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A massive claw smashed Midoriya out of the air like a child’s toy.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya hit the wall behind him with a terrifying </span>
  <em>
    <span>crack</span>
  </em>
  <span>, a strangled cry of pain leaving him before he slumped to the ground, motionless.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“MIDORIYA!” he heard Todoroki scream.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>No.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He needed to end this </span>
  <em>
    <span>now</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>For the first time in four years, Aang reached inside himself.</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>Shouto swallowed hard, bolting for the other side of the battle where Midoriya had gone down. He’d heard that horrible crunching noise from </span>
  <em>
    <span>here</span>
  </em>
  <span> and Midoriya </span>
  <em>
    <span>wasn’t getting back up</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A split second of divided focus, and a massive limb crashed directly into his already injured side. He was hurled back several meters from the impact, tumbling uncontrollably to an eventual halt. Molten pain rose up in his abdomen and he retched, an inhuman noise escaping his mouth as black spots clouded his vision and threatened to consume him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The wind picked up.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouto managed to pick his head off the ground, bracing himself against a half-broken piece of concrete. He squinted, looking for where Aang had disappeared into a cloud of dust. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>From the midst of it, a blue glow shone through.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The air </span>
  <em>
    <span>hummed</span>
  </em>
  <span> around them, ominously melodic and consistent. Shouto glanced downwards instinctively as the ground rumbled, small shards of debris rattling around in the mixed dirt and dust that the arena had become. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Then, a </span>
  <em>
    <span>burst</span>
  </em>
  <span> of light.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The spirit had lumbered over to where Midoriya lay in the few seconds that Shouto had been incapacitated, snuffling at his still form. It turned at the sudden flash, facing the cloud as it shattered outwards.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang leapt out of the rubble, incandescent and unearthly. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The warm countenance was gone, replaced with implacable, freezing intent. His tattoos shone with that strange blue glow, reflected in his now blank eyes. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He hovered there in front of the spirit, suspended in a howling sphere of controlled wind. A deep, rippling snarl came from the spirit and it shrank back from the corona of energy that wreathed his form.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang didn’t let it get far.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Arms went wide, then </span>
  <em>
    <span>pulled</span>
  </em>
  <span> inwards as if grasping invisible cables and the earth responded to his will. Great, stony shackles erupted from the dirt and clamped down on the spirit’s limbs. It screeched its fury, only to be silenced as a geyser of water pulled straight from the icy dome careened over its maw and refroze in an instant. One, two, three plumes of flame scorched the shadowy miasma from its flanks and Aang </span>
  <em>
    <span>surged</span>
  </em>
  <span> forwards in that moment, riding the wind until his hands clasped over the spirit’s snout-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And everything-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Went-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>White.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>The Avatar State was hard to put to words.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Such a frame of existence was impossible </span>
  <em>
    <span>not </span>
  </em>
  <span>to think about, so despite how much he disliked using it, Aang had mulled over that space in-between worlds many a time.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was a nova, barely contained under his skin. A choir of voices, ringing inside his ki. It was an inescapable storm, an endless story, it was pure </span>
  <em>
    <span>light</span>
  </em>
  <span>, bleeding out of him; inexorable, ancient.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It terrified him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He was no longer </span>
  <em>
    <span>Aang</span>
  </em>
  <span> when using this power. He was only the Avatar. And it was </span>
  <em>
    <span>so easy</span>
  </em>
  <span> to lose himself. To give in, and become just a small, insignificant speck of sand in the vast desert that was the Avatar Cycle.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But the world had already taken his people from him. They would not take </span>
  <em>
    <span>him</span>
  </em>
  <span> as well.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The spirit </span>
  <em>
    <span>screamed</span>
  </em>
  <span> as he pulled at the energy inside it, ki writhing in his palms. Slowly, painstakingly, it bowed to the Avatar’s combined will, spiritual energy molded and bent and </span>
  <em>
    <span>ripped-</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There were seams here, seams that he hadn’t known existed, seams he didn’t know </span>
  <em>
    <span>could</span>
  </em>
  <span> exist in the first place. They wept in relief as he tore them open, no longer stitched together in a horrendous mockery of life but free to expand, to escape, to </span>
  <em>
    <span>go home-</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Then, light.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang slowly came back to himself as the Avatar State faded away with the aftereffects of the energybending. Immediately, he felt exhausted. He wavered on his feet, hand pressed to his forehead as he pushed down the dizziness that always came after things like this. He swallowed hard, feeling his shoulders shake as the familiar fear and panic that always followed his return to awareness swam up, and he pushed that down as well. He hadn’t hurt anyone this time. He was ok. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A deep, growling whine brought his head back up to see what had happened. There, in front of him, was a massive, familiar creature. Tan and brown stripes fell over its wide nose and whiskers while hefty legs with long, angled claws at the ends supported its stout body. Shimmering black eyes blinked at him slowly, full of intelligence and awareness.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You’re a badgermole,” he murmured, laying a hand on the spirit’s snout. “How did this happen to you?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The badgermole spirit groaned low in its chest, the sound rumbling through his own at the close proximity. It headbutted him gently. Aang stroked the fur he could reach, feeling the confusion and sadness that were overwhelmingly the dominant emotions in its countenance. The spirit shuffled its claws then, keening, and Aang looked down and around for the source of its distress, puzzled.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>All around, wispy fragments of light were slowly fading away.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang pulled away from the badgermole spirit and knelt among the cloud-like spools of energy, carefully brushing one with his fingertips and a concerned frown. It sang one note in his mind, forlorn and frail, before melting away into nothingness.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shock and horror shook him then as he realized what that had meant and he staggered back, hands clasped over his mouth as bile rose up in his throat and he </span>
  <em>
    <span>choked</span>
  </em>
  <span> on the devastation he himself could now understand thanks to the badgermole’s knowledge. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The miasma, the twistedness, the seams he had ripped off of the spirit’s own ki...</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>These had once been people.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And he had just destroyed them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>…</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>…</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>…</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>...</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He had to get up. He had to keep moving and send the badgermole spirit home. It was </span>
  <em>
    <span>his </span>
  </em>
  <span>responsibility.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang was numb as he rose once more. He reached out, one careful hand on the spirit’s flank as he parted the worlds with the other. The pull was more difficult this time, maybe because he’d already used so much energy fighting the corrupted version of the spirit or maybe just a reflection of his tumultuous mental state. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The tear opened. The badgermole spirit hummed, pressing itself against Aang one last time before moving forwards. Finally heading home.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m sorry,” Aang whispered as the tail disappeared through the light. It folded shut.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He wished he knew when he could also, finally go home.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang sank to his knees and buried his face in his hands.</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>The girl who currently looked an awful lot like a certain student from Shiketsu High hummed cheerfully and rocked back on her heels.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He </span>
  <em>
    <span>had</span>
  </em>
  <span> shown up! How fun.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That was verrrry interesting. If you asked her, at least. Shiggy would probably be grumpy about the whole thing, but then he was </span>
  <em>
    <span>always</span>
  </em>
  <span> grumpy lately, so it wasn’t that bad, really. The General, on the other hand.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Well, he’d be pleased! The monster had behaved perfectly. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Toga ended the recording, running a careful hand over the button-cam hidden on her breast pocket. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Job was done.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And she got more blood out of today!</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She skipped off to make her way to the rendezvous with Kurogiri, content.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Things Come to Light</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Had to take a bit of a break :)</p>
<p>There are no brain cells this chapter. None.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The medics were already on the field by the time Shouta got out there.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He’d almost thought that he’d have to straight up knock Mera out before the man agreed to stop the exam and let the medics and pro heroes get out there to protect the students.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He almost </span>
  <em>
    <span>did</span>
  </em>
  <span> punch him, if he was being honest, but Emi was already backing him up and he was reminded that he would actually like to still have his license after all of this. So he settled for activating his quirk and staring the man down. With Eraserhead, Ms. Joke, and shortly after Gang Orca himself all confirming the same thing, that there was a real villain attack in progress (more or less), the Commission man caved and signaled the termination of the exam to the students over the loudspeaker system. As the qualified support heroes that came with Gang Orca worked to get both volunteers and baffled students off the field, Shouta took off himself to find his </span>
  <em>
    <span>very stressful problem children</span>
  </em>
  <span>. He headed in the direction of the most commotion, Emi hot on his heels. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Are you going to tell me what’s going on?” she asked from behind him, voice low and tense.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Not here.” He glanced behind him, meeting her eyes. “Not now. I can’t.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“Damn it</span>
  </em>
  <span>, Shouta.” She grabbed his arm and pulled the two of them to a halt. He let her, facing her gaze as she searched his face intently. “You knew what that attack was. And so did Aang. He-” she dropped her voice. “He called it a </span>
  <em>
    <span>spirit</span>
  </em>
  <span>. He knew it was coming, to the point it </span>
  <em>
    <span>hurt him.</span>
  </em>
  <span> So </span>
  <em>
    <span>what is going on?”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Emi, I-” He groaned in irritation, pushing his hair back from his face. “I can’t do this here. Later. I </span>
  <em>
    <span>will</span>
  </em>
  <span> talk to you later,” he insisted, seeing her narrow her eyes. “Let me make sure my students are alright first, though. Please.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Something in her face softened.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ok. But </span>
  <em>
    <span>you-”</span>
  </em>
  <span> she waved a finger under his nose threateningly. “Owe me some answers, mister. </span>
  <em>
    <span>And</span>
  </em>
  <span> a drink.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’ll keep that in mind. Later.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Later.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The first of his students in sight was instantly recognizable even in the somewhat chaotic group of field medics and support heroes milling about, various volunteers that hadn’t managed to come through completely unscathed being checked over as well in the makeshift triage that had been hastily erected for the situation at hand.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta made his way towards the distinctive red and white hairstyle of Todoroki, sitting cross-legged on a mostly clear patch of ground with a shock blanket over his shoulders.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sensei,” Todoroki greeted once he’d entered his field of vision, voice hoarse.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Todoroki.” Shouta looked him over instinctively, even with the medic already attending to him. Scratches, bumps and bruises. The left side of his costume had been cut away and banded heavily. “How badly are you injured?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Todoroki shrugged slightly, which told him </span>
  <em>
    <span>nothing.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I can walk.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>… damn problem children.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ok.” He gave him a single light pat on his shoulder. “We’re going to talk about you running back </span>
  <em>
    <span>into</span>
  </em>
  <span> the dangerous villain attack later, but it's good you’re alright.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Todoroki just blinked at him, clearly tired.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes, Sensei.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And everyone else?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Todoroki leaned to the side, looking to the other station that held the rest of his friends.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Shinsou has a fractured wrist and some bad bruises. Midoriya, Iida, and Uraraka all have concussions. Midoriya broke his arm again. And two ribs. Aang has quirk exhaustion. That’s all of us.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta breathed out slowly, pinching the bridge of his nose. He hated this. It was inevitable, being a hero course, that his students would get injured and banged up, but still. It never made it any easier.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Thank you,” he said genuinely, not wanting to give his student the wrong idea about his reaction. “Rest up. If the medics clear any of you, you can ride back to the dorms with the rest of the class. If not, we’ll arrange for other transportation.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Todoroki nodded once more, eyelids just barely drooping. A rare show of softness in this particular teenager. He must have truly been exhausted from the day’s events.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta moved to find his other students.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Todoroki was right. Iida and Uraraka were getting checked out for concussions. Uraraka waved to him as he approached, immediately getting scolded for moving by her medic, who was cleaning a gash on her forehead. Iida sat next to her, looking like he was still a little out of it. A medic with some sort of healing quirk was running an excruciatingly careful finger along his jawline and cheekbones, the deep bruising and scratches on his face slowly fading to resemble weeks-old injuries rather than fresh ones. A quick word confirmed that neither of them remembered much of the attack at all.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shinsou was on a different bench, a portable cloth one that looked like the medics had folded out for the circumstances. One of his arms was in a sling, tied firmly to his chest, and the other hand was running through the folds of his scarf in a nervous tick that he’d been trying to break, but hadn’t managed to so far.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Adjacent to him was Aang, rolling a plastic water bottle in between his hands without really looking at anything in particular. He glanced up as Shouta came closer.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Master Aizawa?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey, Sensei.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Aang, Shinsou.” He nodded carefully in acknowledgement of the two of them. “Have the medics cleared either of you?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m fine,” Shinsou said. He shrugged as best he could with one arm immobilized. “Just a fracture and they had a bone-knitting quirk.” His gaze flitted off to the side, his expression closing off slightly. “It didn’t turn out as bad as it could have.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta didn’t miss the stricken look that Aang hurriedly hid under the cover of taking a sip of water. He narrowed his eyes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m glad. Aang, if you’re not injured, I’d like you to show me where the villain attacked. There may be evidence left behind.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A complete falsehood, not that anyone other than Aang and himself would know. The monk simply jerked his chin in a small nod and got to his feet, placing the water bottle on the ground next to Shinsou. Shinsou looked away.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s over here,” Aang said quietly, gesturing. He turned to lead the way. Shouta glanced at Shinsou one last time to make sure his student wasn’t going to move from his spot before following.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It wasn’t too far away, actually. There was an unnaturally clean expanse of space in the middle of a pile of debris, an odd clearing swept clear in the center. Aang paused at the edge of it and stopped, waving a vague hand in that direction. He wavered slightly, and instinctively placed a hand on a massive slab on concrete beside him to steady himself. Shouta came up beside him, scanning their surroundings to determine that no one else was in earshot.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What happened?” he asked quietly, keeping his voice down.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang had that familiar, distant look in his eyes that meant he was two steps out from being flat on his face and was most likely only still upright out of sheer stubbornness. He swallowed, turning his face to look up at Shouta.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It was a badgermole spirit,” he replied. “It…” He rubbed his face with his free hand. “It was </span>
  <em>
    <span>really</span>
  </em>
  <span> strong. I’m sorry.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta sighed, putting together that answer with the reactions from the other, non-concussed students.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You had to give yourself away.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang nodded, looking miserable.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I had to use the Avatar State to cleanse it.” His expression was tight, clearly disturbed by the events that had occurred. “Something was </span>
  <em>
    <span>wrong </span>
  </em>
  <span>with it. It wasn’t just a dark spirit, or an angry one. I think…” Aang hesitated, before letting his words spill out in a rush. “It wasn’t just one spirit, it was a lot of them. But not spirit spirits. People spirits. Someone took a lot of people and forced the badgermole to hold </span>
  <em>
    <span>all</span>
  </em>
  <span> of them. You’re not supposed to be able to </span>
  <em>
    <span>do that</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” He looked up at Shouta, his shoulders shaking and eyes wide. “They were all dead. Joining them with the spirit </span>
  <em>
    <span>killed all of them.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey.” Shouta placed a steadying hand on the teenager’s shoulder, even as he was mentally reeling from the information he’d just received. “Aang, that </span>
  <em>
    <span>wasn’t your fault. </span>
  </em>
  <span>From what I just heard, those people had died a while ago. If anything, you set them free from whatever they had turned into.” He squeezed, keeping a grounding pressure on his shoulder. “You did good.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang dropped his head, blinking rapidly. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ok,” he finally said, voice small. “I’m sorry your students found out about me.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s something we will address once it comes up,” Shouta promised. “Do you know which ones saw you?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Midoriya, Todoroki, and Shinsou. Uraraka and Iida were unconscious the entire time.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta breathed a silent sigh of relief.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well, out of all my students, those three know how to keep secrets, so I wouldn’t be too worried. We’ll discuss it with them at the earliest opportunity.” Aang still looked torn and unsteady, so he kept his hand on his shoulder, guiding him around once more. “Come on, let’s go back to the others.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The teen leaned into his hand a bit, shoulders drooping. The two of them made their slow way back to the group, Shouta’s mind spinning with all the new information and the possible ramifications of the day.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>People forced together, quirks and spirits and all… Shouta felt a chill go down his spine. They had thought that with the capture of All for One, it would be impossible to create new Nomu. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But who could account for spirits? </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Oh, this was going to be </span>
  <em>
    <span>fun</span>
  </em>
  <span> to share with Tsukauchi. He could already feel a headache coming on.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As they returned, they could hear raised voices not too far away.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“They have </span>
  <em>
    <span>concussions,”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Shouta heard Emi snap. “Can’t you wait until </span>
  <em>
    <span>after</span>
  </em>
  <span> they get released from the hospital?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“They were witnesses to a villain attack on Commission grounds, in a highly secure area, I might add,” Mera, who had administered the exam, coolly replied. “It’s essential that we get as much of the story as we can while it’s still fresh in their minds.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta’s lips thinned, irritated. He motioned for Aang to stay where he was and marched back out into the open to insert himself into the conversation.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Did you need something from my students?” he addressed to Mera, pointedly cold. “I’d like to get them out of here as soon as possible so they can receive proper medical attention.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Eraserhead.” Mera squinted at him, equally standoffish. “This will only take a minute. I have questions. After that, you and your… students are free to leave.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta crossed his arms, scowling.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Fine.” But he was going to stay here for it, his posture said. The Commission man’s gaze narrowed, but he turned to the nearest student, who just happened to be Midoriya. He looked startled by this entire interaction, wrapped arm on his lap until they could get it set properly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The villain,” Mera said, eyes calculating and more awake than Shouta had seen the man all day. “Did you see it directly?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“O-oh. Yes,” Midoriya said, looking more nervous about talking to an adult than Shouta had seen in a while. “I fought it. At first I thought i-it was part of the test, but when Uraraka and Shinsou and Iida all were hurt and weren’t responding, I-I figured it was a real attack and tried to, uh, protect them,” he trailed off.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And what happened to the villain?” Mera pressed. “Did you let it escape? What was its main goal?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta scowled internally at the man’s pointed tone.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya shook his head, looking flustered.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I didn’t actually see. I got hit pretty hard and missed the end of the fight.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Unfortunate. What did it look like?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It…” Midoriya hesitated again, glancing nervously at Shouta. “It actually looked a bit like a Nomu. But kind of... misty?” He waved his hands in front of him in a small motion. “It was hard to look at directly. It may have had a quirk that blocked visual distinction? But it also definitely had a strength quirk and acted similar to how Nomu have in the past.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hmm.” The Commission man turned on his heel, eyeing the other students. “Was anyone able to see what happened to this… Nomu?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There was a moment of silence as Uraraka and Iida both indicated no, and Todoroki and Shinsou exchanged a terse glance with each other.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It fled,” Shinsou finally said flatly, looking directly at Mera as he spoke up. “Whatever it was, it looked like it couldn’t take the hits any longer. Todoroki roasted it one last time and that was it. It burrowed right back the way it came.” He made a stiff gesture with his one free hand towards the ground. “Zoom. Gone.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta felt a small surge of pride even as Mera looked a mixture of disappointed and annoyed at the lack of further information. They might not know exactly what was going on, but they were still covering for Aang. Giving him the benefit of the doubt.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well, it sounds like my students have no more information to offer,” he said, purposefully dry. “I’m assuming we can leave then?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mera borderline glared at him, but nodded grudgingly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Satisfied, Shouta turned back to his students, who were all looking at him with wide eyes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Looks like all of you are heading to the hospital right now, then.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He could have laughed at the resigned and betrayed look on all his students’ faces, but he didn’t, because he had an image to uphold.</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>Most of them didn’t get back to the dorms until that evening. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Those in 1-A who hadn’t been injured in the villain attack had gone home on the usual bus, albeit worried for their classmates. Those who had, all ended up having to take a trip to the hospital. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Todoroki, Shinsou, and Izuku all were released after getting bandaged and healed to the best of the doctors’ abilities. Because of the severity of Uraraka and Iida’s concussions however, they were kept overnight to monitor safely. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Despite the fact that most of them had passed the Licensing Exam- not many people were happy with how the day had turned out. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s only a little set back,” Izuku consoled quietly. “After all, Kacchan will be with you, so you both should get a lot more experience. Maybe even more than the rest of us.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Todoroki simply shrugged.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m not upset, Midoriya.” He rubbed the fingers of his left hand together as they walked back to the dorms, thoughtful. “I was out of line. I know that. If I’m going to be a hero, I need to be better than that.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Better than my father</span>
  </em>
  <span>, the words also said.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>On his other side, Shinsou patted Todoroki on the back in understanding.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“As far as I’m concerned, it gives you more opportunities to go and kick Blasty’s ass. That sounds like a win to me.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku couldn’t help the snort that escaped him at that, while Todoroki just stared at their friend, baffled.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Shinsou, you’re so </span>
  <em>
    <span>rude.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s a gift, what can I say.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They walked for a few more moments.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We </span>
  <em>
    <span>are </span>
  </em>
  <span>talking to Aang, right?” Izuku burst out, unable to stop thinking about the one main thing that was on his mind. “I mean- that’s a given, isn’t it?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I would like some answers,” Todoroki agreed slowly. “Today was… a lot.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So Aang is a little nuts with his quirk.” Shinsou grimaced. “I mean, if it weren’t for the whole ‘Nomu monster that tried to murder us’ part, it wouldn’t be </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> crazy. But no, we had to have some weird cult magic make an appearance.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“But why did he </span>
  <em>
    <span>hide</span>
  </em>
  <span> it,” Izuku muttered. “I mean elemental quirks are rare, sure, especially with so much control but still its not like we don’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>have </span>
  </em>
  <span>them and-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Midoriya,” Todoroki interrupted. This was so unexpected that Izuku actually stopped mid-word to look in his direction. “You remember my quirk, right?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah? Half Cold, Half Hot, but what does that have to do with-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And you remember how </span>
  <em>
    <span>rare</span>
  </em>
  <span> my quirk is?” Todoroki shrugged. “I have a dual quirk- a mutation. And among quirk society, I’m considered a prodigy. Aang having not one, not two, but </span>
  <em>
    <span>upwards of four</span>
  </em>
  <span> quirks? The Commission would either have tried to make him their poster child or made sure he never saw the light of day again.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Knowing our society, probably the murdering or imprisoning option,” Shinsou muttered.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Right.” Izuku smacked himself on the forehead. “I’m an idiot, ignore me.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They had just made it through the doorway and stepped into the common room when Kirishima’s voice boomed out in the open space.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Midoriya! Todoroki! Shinsou!” the redhead bounded over to them, grabbing both Todoroki and Izuku in a one armed hug each. “You guys are all ok!” He stepped back, thumping Shinsou on the back and getting a good look at the three of them. “Group chat says that Uraraka and Iida have to stay the night, huh? That sucks.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>While Kirishima greeted Todoroki and Shinsou cheerfully, getting more information on their two missing friends, Izuku took the moment to glance around the room. There, Aang had just slipped out of the adjacent corridor that Aizawa stayed in sometimes. He was moving to grab a piece of fruit from the bowl on the kitchen table, but froze when he saw their group.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey, Kirishima,” Izuku asked, keeping his eyes on Aang to make sure he wouldn’t bolt. “Sensei left, didn’t he?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, Sensei is out for a bit. Something about a case coming up, I think. Why?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Just wondering.” He gave his classmate a genuine smile. It was almost impossible </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> to feel cheerier around Kirishima, honestly. He was just like that. “Thanks.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They parted after a moment. Todoroki had caught his eye and understood immediately, walking over to the doorway in between Aang and his safe haven. Shinsou followed Izuku as he made his way towards the monk, who was looking more and more resigned with every step. He put his apple down as they all approached.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey guys,” Aang said, trying and failing to not look uncomfortable at being cornered.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We should talk,” Todoroki said, low and serious. “All four of us.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang’s shoulders slumped slightly, like he was expecting this and wished he wasn’t.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Where?” he asked in a quiet voice, sounding defeated. “It’s not that late. People are still up.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Let’s go to the roof,” Shinsou offered. “No one up there and it's hard to eavesdrop if people don’t know where you are.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Has anyone ever told you you’re paranoid?” Izuku muttered to the taller teen as they turned to make their way up the stairs.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“A man who sleeps with a knife under his pillow is a fool every night but one. Fun saying I found a while back.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, that's </span>
  <em>
    <span>not </span>
  </em>
  <span>helping your case.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The air outside on the rooftop was cool and crisp. Night had fallen, but the moon was bright enough in the sky that they could all see the majority of their surroundings. A soft wind blew through, ruffling clothes and hair alike.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The door closed behind all of them with a soft </span>
  <em>
    <span>click. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Aang was scanning the rooftop, Izuku noticed, looking anxious and like he was mentally planning escape routes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’d ask what you wanted to talk about,” Aang said after a few terse seconds. He chuckled slightly, a little strained. “But…  I don’t think any of you are stupid, so-” he pivoted to face the three of them once more. “Go ahead?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The three friends glanced at each other, suddenly remembering that none of them had any clue how to approach this conversation.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Too many things don’t add up,” Izuku finally said, counting on his fingers. “You have only a vague knowledge about quirks in general. You stay with Aizawa, at his </span>
  <em>
    <span>home, </span>
  </em>
  <span>not in a dorm like other exchange students. You keep the same hours he does.” He continued ticking off on his fingers. “You said you only had a wind manipulation quirk, but that doesn’t explain all the other abilities you showed during the Nomu fight.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And you got rid of it,” Todoroki added, brow furrowed. “After all the… light happened, it was gone. And you were talking to thin air.” Izuku blinked at Todoroki in surprise. He’d been knocked unconscious briefly for the end of the fight, so he’d missed all that.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You’re weird,” Shinsou offered, blunt as ever. “It’s worrying.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“...ok.” Aang was looking at all of them with concern now, hands twitching at his sides like he wanted to hold something or put hands in pockets his orange robes didn’t have. “That’s a lot at once. And technically-” he held up a finger. “I never actually said I had a wind quirk? You guys just- assumed, I think.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Just… what the hell </span>
  <em>
    <span>are you?”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Izuku demanded in disbelief. “Some sort of... All for One experiment?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“His long lost grandson?” Todoroki offered.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Everyone stared at him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“What?”</span>
  </em>
  <span> both Aang and Shinsou asked in the exact same tone, as Izuku simultaneously said, “Todoroki, </span>
  <em>
    <span>why.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Just wondering.” Todoroki looked supremely unaffected by everyone else’s incredulity. “Continue.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Right…” Izuku coughed, trying to remember where his train of thought had been going before it had been abruptly derailed and destroyed in a catastrophic fiery accident.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Elements,” Todoroki offered. “You have a multi-elemental quirk, and some kind of base power enhancer on top of that?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang blinked.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You mean the Avatar State?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Whatever that last bit was with the crazy light-show, yeah.” Shinsou crossed his arms. “You definitely ended the fight on your terms.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang’s brow furrowed, trying to puzzle out Shinsou’s suddenly cool tone.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I… did,” he said hesitantly. “I didn’t know how else to stop the spirit. It was…” he winced. “Out of control.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So why didn’t you start with that?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Why not use that kind of power?” Shinsou asked again, louder. His eyes were slightly narrowed. It struck Izuku that still, even after how much he’d grown and accepted himself, powerful quirks were still a sore spot for Shinsou. “You could’ve stopped that Nomu in the first ten seconds. The instant you went all blue, bam.” He snapped his fingers. Aang’s shoulders tensed. “Game over.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t like using it,” Aang said flatly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And why the fuck </span>
  <em>
    <span>not?”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Shinsou…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No, he could have prevented all of that shit!” Shinsou snapped. “You could have </span>
  <em>
    <span>died,</span>
  </em>
  <span> Midoriya, and Todoroki got cut up and with your broken ribs it could have been much worse so </span>
  <em>
    <span>why don’t you use it?!”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Because I’ve</span>
  <em>
    <span> killed people with it!”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shinsou shut up, eyes going wide at Aang’s shout. Izuku and Todoroki exchanged uneasy glances.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang huffed out a weary sigh, looking like he regretted his outburst. He scrubbed at his face with one hand, blinking rapidly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Look,” he said in a softer tone. “The... the Avatar State? I inherited it from my predecessor, Roku. And he got it from Kyoshi, who got it from Kuruk, who got it from Yangchen. It keeps going, with </span>
  <em>
    <span>all </span>
  </em>
  <span>of us.” He shook his head. “Whenever I use it, it takes </span>
  <em>
    <span>so much</span>
  </em>
  <span> from me. And I don’t know if it's worth it, in the end.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Wait,” Todoroki said slowly. “You… </span>
  <em>
    <span>did</span>
  </em>
  <span> receive your quirk from someone else.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang shrugged, resigned.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I mean, I guess.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>What.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And your predecessors?” Izuku said tentatively. “They’re…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Dead,” Aang confirmed in a flat voice. “That’s how the Avatar Cycle gets passed on. The previous Avatar dies in the same moment the next is born.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“But…” Izuku gritted his teeth, knowing how ridiculous both this entire situation and what he was about to say were, especially since </span>
  <em>
    <span>he himself </span>
  </em>
  <span>had received his own quirk from someone else. But outside of One for All, and to the rest of the world, it was the truth. “All of what you just said is impossible. Quirks don’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>work</span>
  </em>
  <span> like that. You can’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>give</span>
  </em>
  <span> someone a quirk. They’re genetic.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>have</span>
  </em>
  <span> a quirk,” Aang said, frustrated. “I didn’t even know what that </span>
  <em>
    <span>was</span>
  </em>
  <span> until I met Master Aizawa!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What does that even </span>
  <em>
    <span>mean?”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Izuku shot back, equally frustrated.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I… </span>
  <em>
    <span>agh</span>
  </em>
  <span>.” Aang smacked his forehead with his palm. “It means what I said. I don’t have a quirk. I’m a bender. I bend elements.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ok, is anyone else really confused?” Shinsou burst out, after about thirty awkward seconds of them all standing around staring at each other. “Because I am. I am like- </span>
  <em>
    <span>really confused</span>
  </em>
  <span> right now.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m telling the truth,” Aang insisted, distressed. “Master Aizawa can’t erase my bending when I’m using it. Uh… oh!” he snapped his fingers, obviously remembering something. “I also talked with a Master Tsukauchi? And he said that I was telling the truth.” He made a face. “He wasn’t exactly </span>
  <em>
    <span>happy</span>
  </em>
  <span> about it, though. I think it gave him a headache.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I think it’s contagious,” Shinsou muttered.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“I</span>
  </em>
  <span> certainly have one.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Three teenagers whirled around at the sudden sound of their teacher’s dry voice, and all four of them made noises of surprise in varying degrees of indignity.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sensei!” Izuku knitted his hands behind his back, awkward. “We uh, we thought you were out.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I was,” Aizawa said, giving his three students a supremely unimpressed look. “But you all were a little obvious.” His eyes flicked over to Aang, still standing slightly apart from the other three, silent, before returning to pin his students with an exasperated look. “You really couldn’t have waited one night?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We- what?” That was Todoroki, looking about as confused as Izuku felt.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I </span>
  <em>
    <span>am</span>
  </em>
  <span> staying with Master Aizawa,” Aang spoke up, hesitantly. “I thought you knew that he knows.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The three students stared at each other.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So, we’re idiots,” Shinsou finally said. “I’d hoped to live a little longer before realizing that, but hey. We can’t all be winners.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aizawa looked </span>
  <em>
    <span>extremely</span>
  </em>
  <span> tired as he rubbed his temples, glaring at the three of them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Aang, you can leave if you want. We’re staying here tonight.” His voice softened just a fraction. “The futon is already out. Blanket’s on the couch like usual.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang nodded numbly. He shot the three students a quick, conflicted glance, before silently making his way past their teacher on light feet to head down the stairs inside.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The door clicked shut behind him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Now,”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Aizawa said, turning to the three of them with a terrifying glint in his eyes. “I’ll bring you three up to speed on what the situation </span>
  <em>
    <span>actually</span>
  </em>
  <span> is.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Welp,” Shinsou muttered. “It was nice knowing you guys.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. There are Always Consequences</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>short but this needed to stand alone</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The cool stone of the wall behind him kept Aang grounded as he leaned back against its solid presence, the world around him illuminated with pale moonlight.</p><p>Well… he supposed that the conversation didn’t go nearly as badly as it could have been. But then, it also wasn’t much of a genuine conversation. More just- misunderstanding each other?</p><p>Aang was tired. He was <em> really </em> tired.</p><p>
  <em> Why didn’t you tell us you were the Avatar? </em>
</p><p>
  <em> Because I never wanted to be. </em>
</p><p>“Ok,” he murmured, slightly exasperated. “This whole spirit adventure is much less fun than I thought it would be.” He slid down the wall until he could sit on the ground, wrapping his arms around his knees.</p><p>Maybe he should talk to someone about this. About… everything, really. He just didn’t know <em> who. </em> Or <em> how, </em> even. </p><p>He missed his friends. He missed Katara’s laugh, the way Toph would punch him in the arm when she was being friendly. Sokka coming up with new plans and inventions while Suki listened patiently, and Zuko awkwardly hugging him back whenever he initiated one.</p><p>Aang pressed a palm to his forehead, closing his eyes. This was giving him a headache.</p><p>Maybe Master Aizawa would listen? He’d been there when he’d faced Zhao, and hadn’t said anything about the war since then, which Aang was grateful about. Those were memories he’d rather not think about. And he was pretty sure he’d caught the end of the rooftop conversation, when Aang had snapped for the first time in who knows how long and blurted out all of his bitter, twisted feelings about being the Avatar and what he could do with what his predecessors had given him. Something he’d promised not to put on people he thought were his friends ever again.</p><p>He didn’t know if Todoroki, Shinsou, and Midoriya were his friends. But… he thinks he’d <em> like </em> them to be.</p><p>Speaking of the rooftop conversation, he couldn’t hear their voices any more. The low rumble of Master Aizawa’s voice had faded about ten minutes past, leaving the dark evening quiet for his contemplation.</p><p>He should probably go back inside. The teacher got a bit jittery when he was out on his own for too long, for some reason. Still, by closing his eyes, and simply breathing the night air, he could almost imagine he was back home, with his friends on Appa just around the corner, ready to go on a late night flight around Zuko’s palace.</p><p>...maybe just a few more minutes.</p><p>A few minutes turned into ten, then twenty, then more. Aang’s chin had dropped onto his propped-up knees as time passed, mind still swimming with thoughts he’d rather not deal with at the moment. </p><p>The combined sound and light from the opening of the dorm's doors made him glance up, half-expecting the tall figure of Master Aizawa to appear, likely to ask him to come back in for the night. Upon not seeing him, the split second of strange disappointment faded into wary confusion as instead, the shadowy figures of Midoriya and Bakugou exited Heights Alliance.</p><p>He wasn’t positive about the time, but he was pretty sure the students had a curfew. Aang glanced up at the moon’s position. It was later than he had expected; the night was almost half gone.</p><p>What were they doing out of the dorms, then?</p><p>Aang watched the pair make their way across the grass, towards the tree-covered path that led to the fake city that the class had practiced rescuing people in this last week. The set of Bakugou’s shoulders was tight and angry, arms stiff at his sides, while Midoriya was more stooped, head down and carefully minding his left arm, the one that had gotten broken today.</p><p>A wave of cold guilt turned his stomach for a moment. Midoriya had gotten a concussion too, on top of all his broken bones. The image of the other teenager crumpled on the ground, blood running down the side of his face, still flickered behind his closed lids.</p><p>Wait.</p><p>Aang carefully got to his feet, worry replacing the guilt. He’d gotten to know Midoriya more than Bakugou in the week and a half he’d known them, but he was still aware of the strange, stilted animosity they carried between themselves. Midoriya was nervous, always on the move in both thoughts and actions, and even timid at times. He hadn’t interacted much with Bakugou, admittedly, but he knew that he was loud and abrasive, quick to use his explosions and quicker still to anger. </p><p>They probably weren’t heading out to have a calm, sensible conversation.</p><p>Aang called the wind to him and took to the air, tracing a path over the trees to follow the duo. His footsteps made no sound as he touched down and leapt up again, the barest of noise from shuffling leaves covered by the stiff breeze that had picked up as the night grew cooler. </p><p>There was something about being an airbender in a world that thought them extinct; people rarely looked up to find opponents anymore. Apparently, that was more universal than one would think.</p><p>After almost five minutes, the two of them were still walking, apparently unaware of their silent tail. </p><p>“K-kacchan?” Aang heard Midoriya say, hesitant. “I know you wanted to talk but- where are we going?”</p><p>Bakugou simply huffed, hands in his pockets, and other than that didn’t show any inclination that he’d heard him.</p><p>“Right,” Midoriya whispered. It was a sad sound.</p><p>They continued on.</p><p>A flicker of movement caught Aang’s eye and he paused in his tree-hopping, crouching low on a branch and scanning the area for other signs. The two students in front of him kept walking, with Midoriya straggling behind reluctantly.</p><p><em> There, </em> what was that?</p><p>A pair of reflective eyes glinted out of the darkness from an alleyway leading into the city.</p><p>Aang reacted instinctively, bounding down to land on the enemy with both feet. Something went <em> crunch </em> underneath him at the impact and he flipped backwards to yank an earthbending kick out the ground beneath him, smashing his opponent into the wall nearest to them with a clatter of metal.</p><p>Aang landed on one foot, his other knee still poised to kick out a fire strike if need be, and peered over at who he had just knocked down, now visible in the patch of moonlight shining between the buildings.</p><p>...oops.</p><p>Not a person, but a smashed bundle of mechanical parts, sparking weakly. A blue hat dropped off of the thing’s head and landed on the ground, getting wet in a nearby puddle.</p><p>Aang winced. Hopefully no one would notice <em> that. </em></p><p>The swell of raised voices drifting over from a block or so away reminded him of his initial reason for coming out here. He glanced up the wall he was standing under. Not too high.</p><p>He crouched, then took off, airbending a series of jumps up the side of the fake building (there seemed to be a lot of fake buildings, lately). He spun on his hands, cartwheeling to land feet first on the rooftop, before jogging over to the side he’d heard Midoriya and Bakugou from.</p><p>Aang got low behind the small lip around the edge of the rooftop and glanced over carefully, searching for the other students.</p><p>“Why are we here?”  Midoriya said, exasperated. The two of them were straight down from his vantage point, in the middle of the street and lit up with a few lamps that continued down the road a ways. “What are-”</p><p>“This is where we had our first combat training,” Bakugou interrupted. He had his back to Midoriya, staring up at the heavily windowed building in front of him. “Where I fought you. And I lost.”</p><p>Midoriya visibly tensed. Slowly, Bakugou turned around red gaze intent and flat. </p><p>“You were always fucking <em> pathetic, </em> you know that, right? Quirkless, useless <em> Deku.” </em> He spat that word with so much vitriol that it rang in the otherwise quiet air. </p><p>Aang leaned back a little, heart sinking. This didn’t feel like something he should be listening to, but… </p><p>He stayed where he was.</p><p>“So you’re gonna tell me,” Bakugou snarled, taking a step forward. “Exactly how you managed to get into this damn school with a brand new quirk that appeared out of <em> nowhere.” </em></p><p>“But I did tell you!” Midoriya burst out, who had been solidly backing away from the other teenager at this point. “After the first exercise I-”</p><p>“Shut up,” the blond snapped. He jabbed a finger in Midoriya’s direction. “You know, I didn’t get what the hell you were talking about then because it made no fucking sense. But <em> somehow,” </em> he growled, stopping his advance for the moment. “Somehow you kept getting stronger, with that smug little satisfied look on your face.”</p><p>“Please stop,” Midoriya whispered. It was ignored.</p><p>Aang could see the anger building up in Bakugou now. He had been unnervingly steady up until this point, but his temper appeared to have reached its limit. He seemed to tower over Midoriya, whose shoulders were still slumped, even though the two of them weren’t that different in height.</p><p>
  <em> I could stop this. </em>
</p><p>“How the fuck is it possible that <em> I </em> failed the licensing exam, while <em> you </em> passed?!”</p><p>“It’s not a matter of ability, though-” Midoriya tried to say.</p><p>Bakugou <em> stomped </em> in his direction, teeth bared.</p><p>“SHUT THE FUCK UP!”</p><p>Midoriya <em> flinched </em>at both the sudden movement and the shout. His hand came up to cover his face instinctively and Aang felt himself go cold, leaning harder against his hiding spot. Because he understood a little more, now.</p><p>Midoriya was genuinely <em> scared </em> of Bakugou.</p><p>
  <em> I should stop this. </em>
</p><p>Bakugou scoffed, dropping his own hands from the fists they’d been clenched in.</p><p>“Look at you,” he said, scornful. “Still pathetic. It pisses me off.”</p><p>Aang sank back down to think, stomach churning uncomfortably. What should he do? He could step in and stop the fight- because Bakugou wanted to fight, he could see it in his face and his posture. But that might just make things worse.</p><p>The image of Master Aizawa floated across his thoughts once more.</p><p>Should he tell him?</p><p>Would that even help?</p><p>Aang watched the tension build, worrying at his bottom lip. He glanced back the way he came, to an adult and someone who knew them better, and then to the fight, preventable now if he stepped in.</p><p>Midoriya flinched once again.</p><p>Aang made his decision.</p><hr/><p>Shouta wondered if it had been the right decision to leave Aang alone for the night.</p><p>The three students who’d cornered him on the rooftop had been pleasantly apologetic and understanding, especially after Shouta had given them the bare bones of the spirit situation and Aang’s part in it.</p><p>They’d also been appropriately nervous during the talking-to, but that was more for his benefit than anything else.</p><p>He drummed his fingers on the table, staring at the screen of his laptop without really processing any of the information on it. Aang still hadn’t come back inside. He mostly trusted the monk’s judgement, but mature or not, he was still a teenager. A teenager shaken up by the day’s events and struggling with morality and guilt, if what he’d overheard was any reflection of his current mental state.</p><p><em> Damn. </em> He should really go talk to him. </p><p>Mind made up, Shouta leaned back in his chair, automatically tying his hair back in a ponytail before reaching for his shoes. </p><p>He had just stood up to head for the door when it slammed open. Aang burst through the doorway, out of breath and eyes wide.</p><p><em> “Whoa.” </em> Shouta caught his momentum before he could crash into him, worry already swirling in his gut. “What’s wrong?” </p><p>Aang stumbled back a step to look him in the eyes, panic bleeding into some form of relief as he recognized Shouta.</p><p>“It’s…” Aang wavered, biting his lip before answering. “Midoriya and Bakugou are out on the grounds in the fake city? And they’re… fighting.” He swallowed hard. “It’s bad.”</p><p>
  <em> Damn it. </em>
</p><p>“Which training ground is it?” he asked, already on the move out the door after pausing only to grab his capture weapon. Aang followed him, keeping up with his pace easily, even while winded from what was probably a sprint back to the dorms.</p><p>“Ground Beta?” Aang cleared his throat as Shouta broke into a flat out run. “Did they know each other as kids?”</p><p>“Most likely.” It was difficult keeping a conversation while running full speed, but he’d had plenty of practice at it.</p><p>“Bakugou said that Midoriya got his quirk brand new at this school. Is that normal?”</p><p>Shouta almost missed a step in his cadence, the momentary skip making Aang run by his side for a moment until the monk dropped back once more, giving him an alarmed look.</p><p>“No.” He gritted his teeth, mind racing. “It’s not.”</p><p>They were coming up on Ground Beta before too long. And yes, just as Aang had said, he could hear shouting in familiar dulcet tones rising over the scenery. Shouta slowed, placing a hand out to stop Aang. He turned to the monk as he blinked up at him in surprise and concern and placed both hands on his shoulders, looking intently at him.</p><p>“Thank you for telling me, Aang,” he said honestly, keeping eye contact to make sure the teen knew he was being sincere. “You may have helped stop something that could have gotten out of hand very quickly.”</p><p>Aang ducked his head, rubbing the back of his neck.</p><p>“I just wanted to help,” he admitted quietly. “Midoriya seemed so <em> scared. </em> I couldn’t leave him.”</p><p>Something remarkably bittersweet tugged at Shouta’s heart for a moment. </p><p>“You should go back to the dorms,” he said, squeezing his shoulders for a moment. “I will handle this.”</p><p>Aang nodded.</p><p>Shouta turned.</p><p>Now, to <em> deal with this. </em></p><hr/><p>Izuku was backed up as far as he could go, tremors running down his body as Bakugou leaned into his space, eyes glittering with too many emotions to place.</p><p>“All Might wouldn’t give me a straight answer, but <em> you </em> will,” he said, voice terrifyingly calm. “And you’re not trying to deny any of this, so I’m <em> right, </em> aren’t I?”</p><p>Izuku tried to will his hands to stop shaking, clasping a hand over his midsection instinctively. He still ached from his injuries received earlier today; his ribs especially. He opened his mouth, but whatever supplication he was going to offer died on his tongue, headache pounding fiercer by the second.</p><p><em> “Answer </em> me, Deku,” Bakugou snapped, and Izuku <em> flinched. </em> </p><p>Why. Why was it that after everything, USJ, the League of Villains, All for One… </p><p>Why was he still so damn <em> terrified </em> of Kacchan?</p><p>“S-so what if it’s true?” he finally managed to say, voice shaky but understandable.</p><p>Despite being what he asked for, the answer didn’t seem to be one he wanted to hear, as Bakugou growled and turned away from him in a sharp huff, pacing a few steps away. </p><p>“I was the one who had the potential,” he said quietly. “I was going to be great. But <em> somehow </em> -” His voice rose with every word, until it was a roar, echoing out into the night and he swung around to face Izuku again, eyes blazing. “Somehow a little nobody like <em> you </em> was singled out by the person <em> I </em> admired most, and I <em> didn’t even realize it!” </em> </p><p>He felt like his heart was going to beat right out of his chest. He swayed slightly, vision tunneling in until he could see nothing but those furious, red eyes.</p><p>“That’s why we’re here,” he could hear Bakugou say, as though from a thousand miles away. “We’re going to settle this, <em> right now.” </em></p><p>Feeling and breath came back to him in a rush as shock filled him and Izuku staggered, meeting Bakugou’s oddly triumphant gaze. Bakugou dropped into his fighting stance.</p><p>“If you don’t want to get hurt,” Bakugou snarled. <em> “Hit back.” </em></p><p>He charged forwards, gleeful violence painted all over his features even as he drew back a hand that popped with his quirk, heat searing across the space between them as the explosion-</p><p>Died out abruptly, just before it could hit Izuku.</p><p>“That is <em> enough!” </em></p><p>Their teacher’s voice cracked out in the sudden shocked silence.</p><p>Bakugou <em> howled </em>, emotion shattering his voice and lunged for Izuku again, who was simply standing there, stunned and completely frozen.</p><p><em> “No!’ </em> he screeched, wrestling against the familiar folds of Aizawa’s capture scarf as they flew forward to ensnare him before he could land a hit. “Fucking <em> let go </em> of me!”</p><p>Izuku could feel his knees buckle and he went down on them, listing to the side as he just stared at the scene in front of him.</p><p>Aizawa stepped forward, hair floating and eyes glowing red with a dark look on his face. He kept the tension on the weapon as he moved, sparing a glance to look over Izuku momentarily before turning his attention back to the raging student.</p><p>“Bakugou.” His voice was low and steady, and not nearly as angry as Izuku expected. “Listen to me.”</p><p>Bakugou didn’t seem to hear him at this point. He struggled against his bindings, staring directly at Izuku, and he was horrified to find tears streaming down his former-friend’s face.</p><p>“WHY DID HE CHOOSE YOU INSTEAD OF ME?”</p><p>The scream echoed out, raw and emotional and broken. </p><p>And with that, all the fight seemed to leave him.</p><p>Bakugou slumped, a different kind of shaking starting to wrack his body as his head ducked down, hiding his expression. Aizawa loosened the scarf as the teenager swayed, catching him with a firm grip on his shoulder and gently lowering him to the ground until they were both sitting back on their heels. His eyes, which before had been filled with anger and a tight expression Izuku hadn’t been able to place, had softened to something that almost looked… sad.</p><p>Bakugou had a hand over his face, the other knitted into his own hair as, for the first time in as long as he could remember<em> , </em> Izuku saw him cry.</p><p>“It’s my fault,” he choked out. “It’s my fault All Might lost his power, if I’d just been stronger, if I hadn’t been <em> fucking kidnapped-” </em></p><p>“Bakugou.” Aizawa pulled him closer, clasping a hand to the back of his neck. And Bakugou let him, leaning bonelessly into their teacher’s shoulder. “Katsuki. It’s <em> not </em> your fault.”</p><p>“No, it isn’t,” a familiar voice rumbled. Izuku glanced up as a large hand came to rest on his shoulder as well. All Might crouched down next to him to sit on his knees like everyone else, careful to keep the arm still in a sling still as he did so.</p><p>“I was always going to lose my power,” All Might said softly. “It was only a matter of when. And I am <em> truly </em> sorry I’ve put the two of you in this position.”</p><p>Izuku leaned into the one-armed hug when his mentor offered it, feeling some of the mute numbness he’d been feeling wash away with the comforting touch. </p><p>“Sometimes… sometimes I forget you’re children,” All Might admitted after a moment of silence. “I’m not a very good teacher, I’m afraid. I appear to have overlooked what was most important.”</p><p>And it was quiet.</p><p>At least for a little while.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Conversations Continue</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>ya'll so sweet I cherish you readers<br/>plot ahoy</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Kurogiri was… </span>
  <em>
    <span>concerned</span>
  </em>
  <span> with the current state of the League of Villains.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Following the rather disastrous ending of events at Kamino Ward and the subsequent loss of All for One, the already tenuous balance that the League kept had been getting thinner and more unstable by the day. Shigaraki was nearly out of control on most days, raging and destroying anything he got his hands on, barring the things of more importance that Kurogiri had managed to warp away before anything happened to them. The other members were content to lick their wounds and wait, but it was clear that some of them with sharper tempers, like Dabi and Magne, were reaching the end of their fuse with Shigaraki’s antics. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Then, </span>
  <em>
    <span>he</span>
  </em>
  <span> showed up.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The things the General said were almost ludicrous, almost unbelievable, if not for the consistent proof he could give them. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A spirit, from another world. Well, if you had told Kurogiri before All for One had enlisted his assistance that there was a man centuries old that could give and take quirks as easily as false promises, he would have been dubious about </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> as well. But the things the General provided were undeniable.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He offered them power. He offered them a chance to build themselves back up from the wayside they’d fallen to. He wanted only a partnership in return.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shigaraki, still fuming from the loss of his mentor, had eagerly agreed. The others had been hesitant. But in the end, power from a mysterious source was better than none at all.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>What put Kurogiri on edge was how </span>
  <em>
    <span>easy</span>
  </em>
  <span> all of this was. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The General had come to them for their Nomu technology. Spirit or not, he didn’t stick out in the world of quirks around him. The ghostly skin and form could be explained as his quirk, the rusty, traditionally-forged armor could be attributed to eccentricity or a family heirloom. He made an imposing figure and was nigh untouchable when he wanted to be, which may have been the only reason Shigaraki agreed to hear him out when he first came to the warehouse they were hiding out in. The technology he wanted was mostly useless to them now, anyways. With no way to give quirks to new Nomu, their doctor had informed them, he couldn’t construct new ones.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>I don’t need that human form of power,</span>
  </em>
  <span> the General had said, dismissive. </span>
  <em>
    <span>All I need from you are more humans to use. And in return, you can keep the abominations. Take your revenge on those who have wronged you.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Such assistance, freely given, was almost too good to be true. So of course, Shigaraki had taken the deal.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The League would provide the “human souls” to fuel their new forms of Nomu. The General would capture and bring in his own world’s spirits to serve as the base for empowerment. In return, when the time came, they would allow the General to use their resources to get his </span>
  <em>
    <span>own</span>
  </em>
  <span> revenge. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The attack on the Licensing Exam had been a test- both to see if the Spirit Nomu were all the General had promised them to be, and to gauge whether or not the Avatar would come running at the first sign of trouble.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Toga, who had been gleeful to participate in another mission that may put her in Midoriya’s vicinity, had cheerfully reported that the mission was an all around success. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>So the Avatar was a child. And yes, he responded to the attack within moments.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>(For some reason he could not remember, the thought of that seemed to bother Kurogiri.)</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>He used the Avatar State?</span>
  </em>
  <span> The General had scoffed. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Human trickery. Let me tell you its weaknesses. </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Iwayama was another problem entirely.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The man was a wild card, one discarded by All for One when he had initially put together the League, both for him already being imprisoned, and for his entirely unpredictable nature. Considering that the League had also approached </span>
  <em>
    <span>Stain</span>
  </em>
  <span> for membership, that was telling.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>For God’s sake, the first thing the man had done upon breaking out had been to destroy the entire precinct that held the evidence locker on himself and steal his personal case file. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He and his spiritual passenger had laughed at Shigaraki’s initial offer to join the League, claiming he had his own vengeance well under control. But after the fight in Hosu, he had come crawling back to them, bruised, battered, and smelling of smoke and sulfur.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>We can’t finish this on our own</span>
  </em>
  <span>, he had grudgingly snarled. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Promise that we get to torture them before whatever you plan to do, and we’re all in.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shigaraki had been vindictively pleased. The General, less so.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Turned out, the passenger in Iwayama’s body was a spirit of the human variety, that fact being the only reason they could actually share possession without tearing the physical body apart. Combined, Zhao and Iwayama were at least three times as irritating as they would have been separate. But Shigaraki still got the last word.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>So, he stayed. He was more than pleased to bring in corpses anyways. Hearkened back to his serial killer roots, Kurogiri supposed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As for now, they bided their time. Took more humans. Gritted their teeth and dealt with the General’s overbearing attitude. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kurogiri was unsure how this would end. But he was certain it would be painful.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>For whom- he did not know.</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>So as it turned out, the consequences for having an emotional fisticuffs match in the middle of the night were getting both put under house arrest and getting scheduled to talk with the school’s counselor to discuss future therapy options.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Which… wasn’t too bad, honestly. Aizawa had even told them (gently, which was strange, but what about that night hadn’t been strange?) that the house arrest wasn’t supposed to be a punishment, rather, a chance to give both him and Bakugou time to breathe and process before going back to class. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku was too emotionally drained at that point to even question or argue. He hardly even remembered getting back to his own bed that night.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>(He thinks All Might may have carried him, and despite his best efforts, he couldn’t find it in him to be embarrassed about that.)</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And so that's how his second semester at UA began. Quietly confined to the dorms, with Bakugou…</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>...and Aang.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Which were two very different, equally awkward situations to deal with.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Is this what being grounded felt like? It seemed like that’s what this was. Maybe not for Aang, though.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Right, Aang.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>…</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aizawa had come down on them a bit for interrogating Aang without him there, his mouth set in a thin line that betrayed his worry even if his demeanor didn’t. But they already knew parts of it, so he relented and shared with them the whole story.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And didn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> just leave Izuku reeling for a good few hours. Alternate dimensions and world hopping and spirits and magic? Maybe magic. He hadn’t narrowed that one down yet.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And Aang. Who, Izuku had realized, had been prodded right in his insecurities by the three of them, completely by accident.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Whoops,” didn’t feel like it quite covered it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But Izuku had plenty of free time for the next three days, so he was determined to make this right.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His sock-clad feet didn’t make much noise as he padded down the stairs, keeping an eye out for Bakugou. He was pretty sure his- friend? rival?- was still in his room, and probably would be for most of the day. He was more grouchy about missing class than being stuck inside, really.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The common room was dead quiet. Izuku stole a quick glance around the area. Aang was sitting sideways on the couch, feet stretched out in front of him. He didn’t seem to be doing anything- just thinking, if his slightly vacant stare was anything to go by.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku made a point to clear his throat and make some noise when he came into the room, not wanting to sneak up on or startle the other teen. He made his way over to the couch, reflexively fiddling with the hem of his t-shirt.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hi,” Aang replied, briefly glancing up at his awkward greeting.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Do you mind?” Izuku gestured to the empty spot on the couch beside him. Aang shrugged, pulling his feet up so Izuku could sit.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Go ahead.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku settled in on the other side of the couch, using the pretense of checking his phone to think about what he was going to say. A tense few seconds passed before-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They both paused, looking at each other in surprise as they both attempted to speak up at the same time. Aang cracked a smile after a moment, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You first,” he said, glimmers of humor showing in his expression.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Right.” Izuku took a deep breath. “I’m really sorry at how me, Shinsou, and Todoroki cornered you last night. You’ve been really nice and honestly a good friend even though I’ve really only known you for maybe two weeks and we should have trusted you that you weren’t some villain experiment or-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Midoriya,” Aang interrupted, looking more amused by the moment. “It’s ok. I’m not mad. You guys were just curious.” He extended a leg and gently shoved Izuku with one foot. “At least I don’t have to keep secrets from my new friends anymore. I’m kind of terrible at it.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku laughed at that, relieved and pleased at the same time.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You kind of </span>
  <em>
    <span>are.</span>
  </em>
  <span> You didn’t even know how quirks worked!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey, I’ll have you know that I was undercover for an entire year when I was twelve!” Aang winced theatrically after that, waving a hand. “But I was pretty bad at it then, too. There’s a reason that Zuko became the weird vigilante spy and I didn’t.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Zuko is a friend from your world?” Izuku asked, curious. Aang nodded happily, his formerly subdued mood faded into the background.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He’s my firebending teacher.” The monk glanced around quickly for Bakugou, presumably, before lighting up a hand with a small bundle of gently flickering flames. “He’s an awkward turtleduck, but he’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>our</span>
  </em>
  <span> awkward turtleduck and we love him.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Can everyone bend in your world? What do the different elements mean? Is it genetic, like quirks or… ah, sorry.” Izuku shut off his rambling before it could get too far. “You were going to say something too, right?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, yeah.” The fire disappeared as Aang closed his hand, dropping it back down to his lap with a thoughtful expression. “I was actually going to apologize too.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku blinked, baffled.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What for?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ah…” Aang shifted, looking a little awkward. “I know about your conversation with Bakugou last night.” He dropped his chin. “I was actually the one who got Master Aizawa. I thought you should know. Sorry.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh.” Izuku swallowed, the multitude of feelings that had bubbled up all day whenever he thought of yesterday’s events swimming up his throat. “It’s ok. It was probably for the best, anyways. Without Sensei, we probably would have an </span>
  <em>
    <span>actual</span>
  </em>
  <span> fight.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang glanced back up at him, quiet.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Do you want to talk about it?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku bit his bottom lip, thinking.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No, not really,” he admitted. “I don’t know if I even want to think about it.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s ok.” Aang hummed in understanding, leaning back on the arm of the couch. “I didn’t want to think about the things that hurt me, either.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku furrowed his brows, caught off guard by that admission.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What did you do, then?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Something dark flickered in Aang’s eyes for a moment. But it passed, and he only sighed heavily in response.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I waited until I had no other choice but to face it.” He met Izuku’s gaze, mouth twisted in a wry smile. “It wasn’t fun. I don’t recommend doing that.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span> It was quiet for a minute then, but the nice, understanding sort of quiet that came with the comfort of knowing the other person wouldn’t press you for a reply.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Can I ask you some questions about your bending?” Izuku finally asked, wanting something to drive the conversation again. Aang looked vaguely surprised, but nodded.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t know how great some of my answers will be, but go ahead.” He pushed Izuku with his foot again, a teasing smile spreading across his face. “But only if you answer some of mine about quirks.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku grinned, and Aang grinned back, and for a while, all was right in the world.</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>Time passed slowly in the dorms.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Master Aizawa had </span>
  <em>
    <span>encouraged</span>
  </em>
  <span> him to stay in the dorms for a few days with Midoriya and Bakugou. He didn’t have to interact with them, it was clearly stated, but the teacher was just going to be setting up the next semester of school anyways, and it would be boring shadowing him. At least, that’s what he’d said.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He was also encouraged to </span>
  <em>
    <span>relax</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Which, was weird. Usually adults told him to pay more attention or put more effort into his work. He’d been brokering peace talks between the Fire Nation and everyone else ever since the war ended, and it never seemed like anyone was pleased about </span>
  <em>
    <span>anything </span>
  </em>
  <span>whenever a meeting came to a close, least of all about the way he handled being the Avatar.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But then, he’d never met an adult quite like Master Aizawa.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Well, Hakoda was similar, if less grumpy. But he was already Sokka and Katara’s dad. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>...wait.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ok, Aang was </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> going to think about that too much.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But! He’d sent another spirit home, this one a grateful badgertoad who wanted nothing more than to get back to his personal patch of swamp in the Spirit World. So he was getting </span>
  <em>
    <span>something</span>
  </em>
  <span> done.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Plus, Midoriya was really nice. After their talk on the couch, things had been a lot more comfortable. Bakugou was… mostly absent. Aang wasn’t sure what to make of him. He was being quiet, out of character and interesting to consider the implications of.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Wait wait </span>
  <em>
    <span>wait.”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Midoriya waved his pencil, looking an odd mixture of baffled and delighted. “You’re telling me that the majority of people in your world don’t have any sort of bending? And everyone is ok with that?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah!” Aang rearranged the makeshift map he’d made on the kitchen table out of various kitchen items. “I mean it's different in every country and culture, sure, but bending is seen as a gift from the spirits. Even if your parents were both benders, there’s no guarantee that you’ll be one too.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Wow…” Midoriya stared at the table’s layout, looking wistful. “That sounds cool.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s… not the same here, is it?” Aang asked hesitantly. Midoriya’s lips twisted in a grimace.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No,” he said, quietly. “If you don’t have a quirk, you may as well be dead with how the rest of society looks at you.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang bit his lip, deciding to brave the topic.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That was you, wasn’t it?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya went </span>
  <em>
    <span>white,</span>
  </em>
  <span> and pushed himself back away from the table.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“W-what?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sorry, sorry!” Aang waved his hands frantically in front of him, stricken. “I didn’t mean to pry or anything but Bakugou said you got your quirk brand new at this school.” He dropped his hands, wincing. “And he called you… quirkless?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya took a short breath, some of the color starting to come back into his cheeks. He nodded, tense, keeping his eyes fixated on his hands clasped on his lap.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah.” His voice was soft and hoarse. “Yeah, I was quirkless.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And… is that why Bakugou doesn’t like you?” Aang asked quietly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya chewed his lip, setting his pencil down on top of his open notebook, the one he’d gotten out after Aang had started telling him more about bending.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Part of it,” he admitted, sounding like that was hard to say.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m sorry. You don’t have to talk about this with me if you don’t want to.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No, it's ok.” Midoriya met his gaze again, green eyes swimming with emotion. “All Might said I should talk about things if they’re hurting me. Maybe I’ll understand more if I say things out loud. Besides-” he shrugged one shoulder. “I already know your super top secret identity, so it’s probably not the end of the world if I tell you mine.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang’s brain skipped a beat for a moment.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Wait, you also have a secret identity?!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya stared at him with wide eyes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes? I’m, uh-” He coughed. “I’m All Might’s successor and the ninth holder of One for All.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“... what does that mean?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The other teen picked up his pencil, tapping himself on the head with it thoughtfully. “You know, I’m going to have to constantly remind myself that you’re from an entirely different world, and thus have no idea what our internal politics are like. So, One for All is a stockpiling quirk that is passed through from successor to successor. All Might gave it to me; his mentor, Shimura Nana, gave it to him.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“Wait.”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Aang shot to his feet pointing an accusing finger at Midoriya, who just blinked, leaning back in his chair. “You’re like the Avatar of this world!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“...what does </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> mean?!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m the Avatar of my world!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“What...</span>
  </em>
  <span> Oh!” Midoriya smacked himself in the forehead, eyes brightening. He flipped to a new page in his notebook, frantically starting to write again. “The power up thing you were talking about; you said you got your quirk- well, bending- from someone else!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hold on.” Aang plopped down in his chair once more, giving Midoriya an accusing look. “And </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> said that was impossible, because quirks don’t work like that.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya grinned sheepishly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well… </span>
  <em>
    <span>normally,</span>
  </em>
  <span> they don’t.” He tilted his pencil, considering. “I guess we’re both outliers in our societies.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hmm.” Aang rubbed his chin. “Can you also contact the past users in your quirk? Because that’s also an Avatar thing. Aside from the-” he wiggled his fingers. “Bending all four elements and bringing balance to the world thing.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You know… I was actually going to ask All Might about that.” Midoriya frowned. “In the first semester, during the Sports Festival, I used One for All to break out of Shinsou’s brainwashing- long story, I’ll tell you later,” he quickly added when Aang looked completely bewildered by this new information. “But the thing that helped me do it was... I saw a bunch of shadowy energy people? Out in front of me. Eight of them.” He tugged on a curl of his hair, thoughtful. “I think they were the past holders. Plus, I’ve been having some </span>
  <em>
    <span>really</span>
  </em>
  <span> weird dreams lately.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I can definitely understand </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> part,” Aang said. “At least you only have eight other people in your head. I have </span>
  <em>
    <span>hundreds.</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Wow. That sounds painful.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sometimes.” Aang hummed, tilting his head to one side. “What are your dreams like? The recent ones. When did they start?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“A little over a week ago, I think. And I’m not entirely sure. It’s like…” Midoriya briefly stopped writing, his gaze flicking upwards as he tried to put whatever he was thinking of to words. “It’s like I’m in a dark room, and I can’t see anyone else, but I can </span>
  <em>
    <span>hear</span>
  </em>
  <span> them whispering. But I can never figure out what they’re saying.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Huh. You know, the spirit breakout happened about the same time. Maybe they’re related?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“If they are, that’s a little ominous.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang rubbed the back of his neck, thinking of anything from his past experiences with spirits that would be helpful to this situation.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’ll ask the next spirit I see about that. Maybe they’ll know more.” Midoriya looked pleased by the thought of that. “Actually, do you know if you can see spirits?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t know.” Midoriya flipped a few pages back in his notes, scanning the writing. “They’re normally invisible to people in my world, right? You said that serpent spirit told you we don’t have “the Sight” like people in your world do. We can check the next time one comes to you. Or do you go to find them?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“A little of both, so far.” Aang moved the plate that he had used to serve as the Earth Kingdom to the side to draw an imaginary circle on the tabletop. “I can sense spirits, kind of? They have a lot of energy, more than just a person’s ki. And I think because I’m the Bridge between both worlds, I also have some of that spirit energy? So they can sense me, and I can sense them, the closer they are, the easier it is to tell.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Like… a spiritual electromagnetic field.” Midoriya sketched something briefly before flipped his notebook around so Aang could see what he’d drawn. “It pings you whenever a like-energy source gets within your radius.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang tilted his head to get a better look at the page.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m not exactly sure what that is, but ok.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Following the lengthy explanation of what exactly an electromagnetic field was, Midoriya resumed his muttering mode, pencil moving faster and faster the more his thoughts sped up.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“This just seems horribly inefficient,” he finally said, slamming both his notebook and pencil down after a few minutes of this. “You’re not sure exactly how many spirits are even </span>
  <em>
    <span>in</span>
  </em>
  <span> this world, and it's only within a few miles that you can pinpoint their locations, unless it's a significantly powerful spirit that has probably already sensed </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> before you can sense them. You need a better game plan than just chasing human-spotted leads. Though Detective Tsukauchi </span>
  <em>
    <span>is</span>
  </em>
  <span> really good at his job,” he admitted in a mumble. “You need a way to get </span>
  <em>
    <span>all</span>
  </em>
  <span> the spirits to know you’re here to get them home, simultaneously.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang, who was going a little cross-eyed at trying to keep up with Midoriya’s frantic scribbling from upside down, just nodded, nonplussed. Midoriya chewed the end of his pencil, brows drawn together in a focused look.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Are there any spirits that you’ve had a good rapport with in the past?” he asked. “One’s that would recognize you, not just because you’re the Avatar, but ones that know who </span>
  <em>
    <span>Aang</span>
  </em>
  <span> is.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang winced, thinking back.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Not many. Most of the spirits I’ve met outside of this world have either tried to kill me, or tried to kill other people. Oh, wait!” he snapped his fingers, relief pouring over him. “Hei Bai! I met him really early on, and he even helped me later when I was trying to find Koh the Face-Stealer.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya made a face of his own.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Fun name. But this Hei Bai is a friend?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I hope so. I always like seeing him. But I don’t know if he came through the rift.” Aang drummed his fingers on the table. “He’s pretty powerful though, because he’s a guardian spirit. When I first met him, he was stealing people and taking them to the Spirit World to try and get the nearby town to help his forest. The Fire Nation had burned it down.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well, I’ve made a few friends by fighting them, so I don’t think I can judge. So if Hei Bai is powerful, then he can probably sense you. If he is actually here. Do spirits know each other?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I think so.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Then next time you find a spirit, you can ask them to find Hei Bai. If they can find you, they can definitely find him.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Wow.” Aang stared at his new friend with awe. “You’re </span>
  <em>
    <span>really </span>
  </em>
  <span>smart, Midoriya.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya blushed, making his freckles stand out even more, and tugged on his bangs again.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“A-ah, thanks. I’m just trying to help- since you helped us at the exam.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So once we find Hei Bai, then what?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“W-well, spirits seem to be able to find each other pretty easily, and a more powerful spirit would have a better idea of how many spirits came through at once since it appears they are aware of a higher scale of energy than other spirits.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So we ask him to be our tracker!” Aang grinned. “That’s genius, Midoriya.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya blushed even darker, if possible.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“W-what about General Old Iron? How do you plan on getting him to go back? If he was powerful enough to start this in the first place, it won’t be easy to make him return.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m not sure,” Aang admitted, good humor dying down a bit. “I fought him before, but I had help. Toph and her metalbenders broke his armor open for me.” He dipped his head. “But that was a few years ago. I have the basics of metalbending down because Toph is a very stubborn person, but I’m not </span>
  <em>
    <span>nearly</span>
  </em>
  <span> as good at it as she is. I’m better at bending now, but he might also be stronger in this world. I just don’t know.” He sighed. “I’ll probably have to fight him again.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And you’ll have help this time too!” Midoriya insisted, leaning across the table. He jabbed him with his pencil. “A few pros know, and now so do we. You don’t have to do this by yourself.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A small smile crept over Aang’s face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Thanks, Midoriya.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s what friends are for, right?” Midoriya settled back in his chair, twirling his pencil once again. “The question about the General is, what’s he planning? Because he’s making Nomu, and so far only the League of Villains have been able to do that.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Is he working with them, then? Because even though it was a spirit at its core, it was…” Aang bit his lip. “It was forced to hold people. The spirits of them, at least.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya frowned, disturbed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That sounds like what they did to make Nomu before. Just with more spirits involved. And if he </span>
  <em>
    <span>is</span>
  </em>
  <span> working with the League, that’s not great. That means he has resources from our world and a base of operations to use them in, not to mention some form of backup.” Midoriya tilted his head as a thought apparently struck him. “And he’s been here about the same amount of time that you have. Which means he, probably with the League, made that Nomu in about a week’s time. Why send it to the Licensing Exam, though?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“A test?” Aang suggested. “If he can make them in a week or less, then he may be trying to get better at doing it.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah.” Midoriya twirled his pencil again. “Either that, or he might have even been targeting you. But what does he </span>
  <em>
    <span>want,</span>
  </em>
  <span> in the end? He can make Nomu, sure. But that’s something we’ve already dealt with in this world. And it's awful, yeah, but heroes know how to fight Nomu now. Even if he’s trying to start a war of attrition, I don’t think he’d be able to win by just sending one Nomu out at a time. And what does the League get out of this? What is he giving them?” Midoriya lowered his hand, furiously thinking. ‘What’s their plan?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’ve been asking myself that,” Aang said dejectedly. “At least I know that Zhao wants to kill me. I think the General </span>
  <em>
    <span>also</span>
  </em>
  <span> wants to kill me? Maybe? But the thing he was really upset about before, was the fact that humans had gotten more powerful than spirits by now. I guess it didn’t use to be that way.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So a bid for power to return to the old ways,” Midoriya muttered. “Makes sense. But that brings us around to our initial question- how is he going to do that? Why here? Why now?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t know. And that’s what worries me.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Some Things Aren't Linear</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I just wanna take a moment to say- thank you? All of you, you are all incredible readers and the sheer amount of feedback and love this fic has gotten continues to astound me. This is really the first long fic I've ever done, and the first real fic I've written in about 7 years and I'm actually a little overwhelmed with how much this has blown up. So. Thank you.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“Are you still grounded?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang froze, slowly looking over to Shouto with visible confusion.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m… not, grounded?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouto tilted his head, looking the monk over thoughtfully.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Then why are you still in the dorms with Midoriya and Bakugou?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I, uh, chose to be?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Does it have to do with your spirit hunt-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang </span>
  <em>
    <span>yelped</span>
  </em>
  <span> and pounced Shouto then, quickly clamping a hand over his mouth before he could finish his sentence.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“Todoroki,”</span>
  </em>
  <span> he hissed, grey eyes only a few inches away from his own. “You can’t just </span>
  <em>
    <span>say</span>
  </em>
  <span> that out loud. I can be terrible with my own secrets, but you can’t!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouto, who had reeled backwards a bit at the unexpected proximity, pushed the monk away, feeling an unwilling fluster color his face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> being terrible with your secrets. There’s no one else in here.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hmm.” Aang kept his hands on Shouto’s shoulders, glancing around the room suspiciously before conceding the point. “I mean, Shinsou is here.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Shinsou is </span>
  <em>
    <span>always</span>
  </em>
  <span> here.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I resent that remark,” the person in question called out from where he was draped, upside down, on the common room couch.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s 5 in the morning,” Shouto pointed out. “Shinsou is here because he doesn’t sleep, but you and I are the only other ones awake.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ok, ok.” Aang patted him on the side of the head and on his shoulder once more before pulling back out of his space. “What were you asking about, again?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouto blinked, rubbing the side of his face unconsciously where Aang had made contact.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Can you help me with something?” he blurted out, before he could lose his nerve and shy away from this.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang smiled at him, sunny and unfairly awake.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Of course. What do you need?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Can…” he took a deep breath and powered through. “Can you show me how you firebend?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang simply looked at him for a moment, quiet. Shouto resisted the urge to bite his lip or fidget as the monk scrutinized him. He met the other’s eyes and was surprised by what he found there, because it wasn’t pity, or fear, or disgust, like he’d expected. No, the only thing there was… understanding. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah,” Aang said softly. “I would be happy to.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Behind them, Shinsou fell off the couch in a squawking tangle of limbs, spoiling the moment a bit.</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>Shouta was tired, exasperated, worried, furious, and unsettled, all at the same time. All because of a series of information that </span>
  <em>
    <span>he really should have been informed of before now.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Unfortunately, murdering the former Symbol of Peace was frowned upon.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>All for One, One for All, Midoriya being quirkless, the situation at Aldera Middle School, Bakugou and Midoriya’s history-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Damn it.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He </span>
  <em>
    <span>hated</span>
  </em>
  <span> how much sense everything suddenly made. He may understand </span>
  <em>
    <span>why</span>
  </em>
  <span> the kid had kept it a secret, but it still pained Shouta to think that he could have helped him so much </span>
  <em>
    <span>sooner.</span>
  </em>
  
</p>
<p>
  <span>...he wondered if he could get Nedzu to open a lawsuit against Aldera.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He rubbed dry eyes, glaring balefully at his empty mug of coffee. It was maybe 5:30 at most, he had an entire semester’s worth of notes on Midoriya to go through and overhaul completely, and he had to make sure both of his miscreants went to see Hound Dog separately today. It was going to be a long day.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But worth it in the end, he hoped. Midoriya and Bakugou had both been hesitant when he had brought up counseling, but eventually when even All Might admitted that he saw a therapist on a semi-regular basis, neither of them could argue too much against it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Therapy wasn’t ever easy. Neither was talking to someone in general. He would know.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But they’d been overlooking this part of the kids’ health too long.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The door to the dorm suite creaked open.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Master Aizawa!” Aang called, trotting over to where he was seated. “I have a super quick question- can you help me with something?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta squinted at him, automatically wary.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It depends. What is it?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m going to teach Todoroki how to firebend,” Aang said earnestly. “But he also said that we should have someone watching us so we don’t burn anything down and you’re the only teacher who knows and who we trust so will you come supervise?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta wondered if it was too early to go back to bed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Why?” he asked tiredly, pinching the bridge of his nose. Aang hesitated before answering, contemplative.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Because I think I can really help him,” he said. Honest. Straightforward. “The first time I used firebending, I burned Katara. And it </span>
  <em>
    <span>scared</span>
  </em>
  <span> me.” He bit his lip, eyes sliding off of Shouta to focus somewhere off to the left. “For a while, it felt like everything about fire was only used to destroy things and hurt people. But, I learned and got better, thanks to Zuko, the Masters, and the Sun Warriors.” He looked back at Shouta, pensive. “I want to be able to do that for Todoroki.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Well. When said like </span>
  <em>
    <span>that-</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You’ll only do this under my direct supervision,” he ordered, pointing his pen at the teenager. “On your own time, outside of class. And we do it in the gym.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang beamed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Thanks!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta looked at his bright face and thought about talking to people and counseling and old hurts and sighed internally. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I have something to ask you too, Aang.” He gestured to the couch across from him. “Sit down for a minute?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang tilted his head, puzzled by his sudden change in tone, but complied.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta was no professional, but he’d try his best.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I want to say this first,” he started seriously. “If you are uncomfortable with this and you want to stop, we will stop. I will not force you to talk about anything you are not willing to.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang’s gaze went from calmly bemused to sharp and wary.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Okay. What are we talking about?” he asked, slowly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Here goes nothing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Aang,” Shouta kept his gaze firmly locked on him, knowing this was a conversation that needed to happen. “Who was Admiral Zhao?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And Aang’s countenance… folded in on itself.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Do we have to talk about him?” he said, voice gone flat and quiet.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No,” Shouta admitted, keeping a careful watch on the teenager’s reaction. “But he clearly hurt you. And I want to be sure that you’re going to be alright if we meet him and Iwayama again.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang met his eyes, startled confusion melting the wall he’d thrown up at the first sign of this conversation.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You… want to know if I’m ok?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta swallowed, fiercely pushing down something remarkably like rage that had risen up upon seeing that lost and bewildered look reflected back at him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes. I want to make sure that you’ll be safe, both physically and mentally.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The teenager didn’t seem to know how to respond to that and simply dropped his head to focus his gaze on the floor instead of Shouta.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I…” Aang licked dry lips, trying again. “He…” His shoulders slumped. “I have to explain some things first.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta waited, hoping.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The Hundred Year War ended about four years ago for me,” Aang finally managed to say, knitting his fingers together on his lap. “There were four different cultures in my world- the Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation, and the Air Nomads.” His voice cracked just barely as he spoke, like a splinter down a clear pane of glass. “But then… the Fire Nation started a war. Fire Lord Sozin started a war.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta let his anger and sadness die down as he listened. This wasn’t about him, right now. This was about Aang saying what he needed to say.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“As the Avatar, I was supposed to defeat the Fire Lord.” Aang picked at the nail of his thumb, still looking down. “The Fire Nation was trying to capture me so I couldn’t. Zhao was in charge of that.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>He was twelve,</span>
  </em>
  <span> Shouta thought, feeling ice in his veins. </span>
  <em>
    <span>How the fuck did his world think this was ok?</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He…” Aang’s face twisted. “He did capture me, once. Chained me up inside his fortress and everything. I was supposed to be shipped off to the Fire Lord- like some sort of </span>
  <em>
    <span>t-trophy.</span>
  </em>
  <span>” He rubbed one of his wrists with his other hand, like he was unconsciously remembering the feeling of shackles against his skin. “If Zuko hadn’t rescued me, I don’t know what would have happened.” The monk wrinkled his nose, glancing up once more. “Of course, I didn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>know</span>
  </em>
  <span> it was Zuko at that point because he was still trying to capture me too and he had his whole Blue Spirit thing going on, but that’s another story.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Right,” Shouta said with forced calm, impressed with himself at how level he had managed to keep his voice. “Go on.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He chased us- me, Sokka and Katara. We went to the Northern Water Tribe to find me and Katara a waterbending master. But-” he wavered again, taking a deep breath before plunging back into his story. “Zhao and his fleet found us there. They tried to destroy the Water Tribe. So… Zhao killed the moon, in hopes of weakening all the waterbenders.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Wait. Record scratch. Reboot.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He did </span>
  <em>
    <span>what?” </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang’s expression was more bemused than lifeless now, a small victory in an otherwise heavy conversation topic.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“In my world, the original waterbenders were Tui and La, the spirits of the moon and the ocean. They were a pair of koi fish, always swimming around each other.” He deflated once more upon getting back on topic. “Zhao found where the spirits existed in the Material World. And… he killed Tui. And everything went dark.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta, still reeling with the worldly implications of all that, simply nodded to indicate he was still listening.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“La was... “ Aang swallowed as the story clearly got harder for him to continue. “He was furious. I-I offered him my Avatar spirit.” His eyes were blank once more, remembering. “He-we destroyed the entire Fire Nation fleet.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Including Zhao,” Shouta quietly prompted when Aang seemed to freeze for a moment. He nodded numbly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We stopped the war in the end.” A soft, choked noise escaped the back of Aang’s throat, seemingly unnoticed. “But a lot of people died.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta closed his eyes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Fuck.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m sorry you had to live through that,” he said after taking a few seconds to regain his composure. “Thank you for telling me.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang looked so </span>
  <em>
    <span>confused</span>
  </em>
  <span> by his reaction that it made his heart hurt. Shouta took a shallow breath.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Tsutsumi Miu was a first-year student of mine, six years ago.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang slowly looked up, blinking.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The one… the one that Boil talked about in Hosu?” he asked softly, almost hesitant. Shouta nodded, a familiar grief heavy on his tongue. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I had already been chasing Iwayama for months by the time the second semester rolled around. He knew me, and I knew him. And I’d come so close to catching him, multiple times.” He let out a breath that he hadn’t quite known he’d been holding, feeling it pour out of him. “Tsutsumi was… bright. Both for her light manipulation quirk, and for her personality.” Shouta ducked his chin, letting his eyes fall to somewhere on the floor. “She was his final victim. It was a stupid coincidence- she and her friends had just been running down to the store for the weekend.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang was silent, listening intently.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I found him over her body,” Shouta admitted. “I was maybe… five minutes too late. At most. I may have put him away that day, but-” he shook his head. “The cost was too high. And I’ve struggled with that ever since.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang studied him, eyes wide and young and at the same time, horribly knowing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Death is always too high a cost,” he said. Too weary, too old for his age. “No matter who it is.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So.” Shouta studied the teenager across from him. “Will you be alright if we have to fight both of them again? Zhao does need to be sent back to your Spirit World.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang blew out a heavy breath.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’ll be ok,” he said. “It’s actually kind of silly that he bothers me so much.” He ran a hand over his head in the nervous tick Shouta had pinpointed pretty early on. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And why would you think that?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well…” Aang grimaced. “When he captured me that one time? It- I couldn’t move. There was no way I could have gotten out of that by myself. And he knew it, too. He was really-” he struggled with the words for a moment. “...satisfied with his position.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s perfectly normal to have been scared in a situation like that,” Shouta said quietly. “You’re only human.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang shook his head, frustrated.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It wasn’t even that. It’s just-” He rubbed his forehead, wincing. “He said he was going to keep me alive… but just barely. For the rest of my life.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta bit the side of his cheek, reminding himself that he could indulge in his own personal rage later on.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Nothing even happened,” Aang said, sounding exasperated with himself. “I was out the same day. But for some reason, I still think about it. And when I saw Zhao again, it all came back.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Our brains are funny like that.” Shouta leaned forwards to rest his elbows on his knees. “We can go years without remembering hurtful things. But then something small, or significant,” he added, nodding to Aang. “Pops up in our life, and suddenly it's like it's fresh and raw all over again.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s a hard thing to live with,” the teen said quietly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta sighed. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, kid. It is.”</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>Before anyone really knew it, three days had gone by and Midoriya was back in class. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Is Bakugou ok with waiting another day?” Aang asked as he walked with Midoriya through the hallways, genuinely curious. Midoriya shrugged, looking a bit uncomfortable.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Kacchan is usually always upset about something, so it's hard to tell sometimes. But… I think he’s waiting? He seems to be doing a lot more… reflecting, I guess, than I’ve ever seen him do, really.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And… is talking to someone helping?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya frowned ever so slightly.</span>
  <span>
    <br/>
  </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t know,” he said honestly. “I think it’ll get easier. It’s just…” he shook his head. “It’s a weird feeling, you know? Because I can sit there with Hound Dog and tell him really </span>
  <em>
    <span>anything</span>
  </em>
  <span> and he just listens and tells me that it's perfectly ok and normal for me to be experiencing these things? I’ve-I’ve never had anyone really tell me that before.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang thought back to his conversation with Master Aizawa and understood completely.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Uraraka and Asui joined them on their walk. They chattered in pleasant conversation as they streamed into the classroom, a good majority of their classmates already present and at their desks.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang quietly slipped into his seat in the back, prepared to start up his pretense of being a visiting student once more.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Though, er, it wasn’t exactly incredibly intact anymore.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He didn’t do much during classroom time. Sometimes he listened in, interested by the information he could get on heroes and how the world worked in general here. Usually though, he meditated, sinking into his ki as much as he could to try and broadcast his own spirit energy to find any spirits in the area. And that had worked decently enough so far. Various spirits trickled in to find him, letting him send them home once he got back to the dorms for the day.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Had he been his younger self, this much waiting would have been aggravating and nigh impossible. But he’d had a lot more practice on sitting in on boring meetings and long state dinners in the past few years.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But today, they had visitors!</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Three of them, in fact. All third years, they trooped in the door to speak to the class, led by the student who introduced himself as Mirio Togata.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Wow, he was </span>
  <em>
    <span>very</span>
  </em>
  <span> tall. And muscular. And golden.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Honestly, Aang missed most of what he was saying (work studying, maybe?) in favor of curiously looking over him and his two companions. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That was a lot of very colorful hair. How did she style it like that?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Oh! He had pointed ears! He was currently facing the wall, though. Maybe he had a headache?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Then you all can fight me! Is that all right, Aizawa-Sensei?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang perked his head up. Why were they fighting?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Do whatever you want,” Master Aizawa said, long-suffering. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The class was not impressed. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That’s how they all ended up in the gym, ready to have a one on eighteen battle. Unfortunately, Aang wasn’t able to fight, the battle being limited to people who actually had their provisional licenses. So he and Todoroki hung out on the sidelines, watching the class stretch and mutter amongst themselves to prepare for what should be an interesting sparring session.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mirio’s two friends, Nejire and Tamaki, if Aang remembered correctly, sauntered over to the wall to chat with them. Well, Nejire sauntered. Tamaki looked a bit too shy to do anything with that much outward enthusiasm and practically ignored the three of them in favor of burying his face in the wall to avoid looking anyone in the eye, muttering something about Mirio traumatizing poor first years.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So why aren’t you two out there on the field for Mirio to demolish?” Nejire asked with good cheer, a teasing glint in her eyes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t have my provisional license,” Todoroki said. Blunt, as usual.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang shrugged, trying for a sheepish smile.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span> “I’m just a visiting student.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Nejire blinked at that, looking him over curiously.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh really? Where from?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Uh, Tibet?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Wow, so you’re a monk, then? That’s why your head is shaved, right?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh look, Mirio is starting!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Nejire’s attention was promptly diverted as she said that, looking back out onto the gym floor where the entirety of class 1-A, barring Todoroki and Bakugou, were spread out in various battle stances, facing Mirio all by his lonesome.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang squinted. The tall third year had the same look on his face that Toph did whenever she got to break in a new group of metalbenders.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He’s going to beat all of them up, isn’t he.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yup!” Nejire said cheerfully.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Tamaki mumbled something incomprehensible into the wall. Whatever it was, Todoroki seemed to agree with the sentiment.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mirio got ready to fight, 1-A tensing with quirks and weapons at the ready.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And then his clothes- just. Fell off.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There were many noises of confusion, horror, and protest from 1-A in reaction, the most notable being Jirou, who had shrieked and covered her face, blushing bright crimson.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang couldn’t help but stare, completely baffled.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“His quirk is that he strips at will?!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Nejire actually </span>
  <em>
    <span>cackled</span>
  </em>
  <span> at that, bending over from her laughter.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, I am </span>
  <em>
    <span>so</span>
  </em>
  <span> telling him you said that when we get back to the dorms today,” she wheezed, wiping away an imaginary tear. “Aang, I love you.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang grinned, pleased by her reaction as Mirio hastily pulled his pants back on before signaling 1-A that he was ready for them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It went about as well as you might expect. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The first volley of attacks simply flew through the third, demolishing the concrete outcropping behind him. Mirio gave all of them a cheeky grin before lifting his arms up and </span>
  <em>
    <span>whoosh.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Disappearing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Where’d he go?!” someone shouted, confused.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang frowned, flicking his eyes downwards. Into the ground?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mirio </span>
  <em>
    <span>surged</span>
  </em>
  <span> upwards out of the floor, laying poor Momo and Jirou low with the same full body hip check. Shinsou’s scarf flew at him alongside Sero’s tape and he simply let them phase through his torso. The moment their owners took a second to reel back in though, he grabbed both strands, tangible once more. Aang could hear Sero’s yelp and Shinsou’s brief shout of </span>
  <em>
    <span>“oh, for fuck’s sake”</span>
  </em>
  <span> before they were both whipped into the nearest wall by their own weapons, taking out a very surprised Ashido on the way.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Should he be taking this much joy out of watching his friends get beaten up by a naked man? No, probably not. But this was </span>
  <em>
    <span>hilarious.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouji got clotheslined the same moment that Ojiro got pitched across the floor and Mirio was like a leaf on the wind; if a leaf was also incredibly strong and muscular and had the ability to decide whether or not he wanted to touch things.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang could see Midoriya on the outskirts of the fight, dodging classmates back and forth as his quirk sparked in his footsteps, eyes narrowed and lips moving silently as he tracks Mirio’s movements. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mirio dropped back into the floor, tripping Kirishima so he bowled over Kaminari in full rock mode (ouch) and that's when Midoriya made his move. He bolted to the far side of the room to give himself space and when Mirio popped up out of the concrete behind him he seemed to </span>
  <em>
    <span>know</span>
  </em>
  <span> and lashed out with a glittering back kick-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Which </span>
  <em>
    <span>almost</span>
  </em>
  <span> connected.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mirio, actually looking surprised, did </span>
  <em>
    <span>something</span>
  </em>
  <span> that had Midoriya squeak in panic and promptly spiked the first year into the pavement.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang winced sympathetically.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And with that, the bout seemed to be finished, considering Mirio is the only one left standing amidst the groaning, sweaty, collapsed forms of 1-A. Nejire wolf-whistled in appreciation. Her friend just cheerfully waved her off before skipping back over to his abandoned uniform to put some clothes on again.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Nejire patted Aang on the shoulder, winking.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Thanks for talking with me, Aang. I hope we get the opportunity to spar in the future!” She grabbed Tamaki by the hand and pulled him along to go talk to Mirio.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The rest of the students limped back over to the sidelines to grab water and rest, nursing battered bodies and egos alike.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Iida was schooling his very exhausted and bruised friends on what to do after such a vigorous battle, in what Aang could now correctly identify as his own oddly caring fashion.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Arms over your heads, everyone. Breathe normally!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya ignored Iida’s good and sensible advice in favor of simply laying flat on the ground, throwing his arm over his eyes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Midoriya, that cannot be good for your respiratory system!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Uraraka and Asui both promptly flopped down next to Midoriya.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sorry Iida!” Uraraka said, albeit a bit breathlessly. Asui simply folded her long fingers across her stomach, closing her eyes. Iida despaired at his friends apparent lack of knowledge when it came to proper cooldown techniques.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You got beat up by a naked man,” Aang teased, crouching next to Midoriya. Midoriya simply gave him a baleful look from under his forearm.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The dignity you lost today can never be regained,” Todoroki agreed solemnly. Aang snickered at the betrayed look on both Midoriya and Uraraka’s faces.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I didn’t know Todoroki could be sassy,” Asui said, staring up at the ceiling placidly. “Shinsou, you’ve corrupted him.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh no, don’t blame me.” Shinsou pointed his water bottle in her direction as threateningly as he could manage with his hair in his face and his gym uniform covered in concrete dust. “He </span>
  <em>
    <span>came</span>
  </em>
  <span> like that. His inner sassy has just emerged because of all the crazy shit 1-A does.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Shinsou, you’re </span>
  <em>
    <span>in</span>
  </em>
  <span> 1-A.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And I’m still trying to figure out this has become my life, thank you very much.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya spluttered.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Shinsou, </span>
  <em>
    <span>you </span>
  </em>
  <span>told me you were going to kick my ass in the Sports Festival so you could get into the hero course.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And then trained separately with Aizawa on your own time,” Todoroki added.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And got your grades up to almost perfect so they couldn’t nix you for that either!” Uraraka chimed in helpfully. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He also put in a truly remarkable amount of effort in maintaining the rigorous standards of UA!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sounds like your fault, Shinsou. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Kero</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, shut up all of you. Gremlin squad.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Guess what, you’re also part of this squad, Shinsou.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“Stoooop.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang fell over, he was laughing so hard.</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>“This is filthy,” an unfamiliar voice sneered from outside, audibly ringing through the warehouse. “The dust alone may get me sick. What happened to the standards the League used to hold?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kurogiri eyed both the door and Shigaraki, as their leader cocked his head in interest at the unexpected diversion.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Come on,” Twice complained. “It’s not our fault. </span>
  <b>Junk heap came like this.</b>
  <span>”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A flicker of movement in the corner of his field of vision made Kurogiri aware of the General’s presence. His armor glinted in the dim lighting of the warehouse, the only thing that kept him from being able to phase in and out of existence like the rest of his brethren. His glowing eyes were fixed on the entrance and the two people coming through it, expression inscrutable.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Just who did you bring in this time, Twice?” Shigaraki’s voice was genial and pleasant, a tone that could flip to rage as easily as a lightswitch at any second. “A pretty big fish, it looks like. Too bad we’re not fishing at the moment.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The young man who had come in with Twice raised an eyebrow behind his bird-like mask covering the bottom half of his face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Not the reception I was expecting, I’ll be honest. Or are you so far removed from who you used to be that you don’t even understand what’s going on in the world around you?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shigaraki hissed, irritated.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>‘You’re Kai Chisaki, of the 8 Precepts. Isn’t the Yakuza a little old-fashioned in these times?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Toga snickered from her seat.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Riding the coattails of All Might’s retirement, are you?” Magne called out, scornful.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Actually,” Chisaki, or Overhaul, returned coolly. “My organization actually has gained more traction thanks to the defeat of All for One.” He tilted his head, mocking. “That was </span>
  <em>
    <span>your</span>
  </em>
  <span> dear Sensei, wasn’t it, Shigaraki?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Why the hell are you here, Overhaul,” Shigaraki snapped, temper already frayed to its limit. “We don’t need you.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, really?” Overhaul waved to the area around him. “Your home tells a different story. Although the Nomu you’ve been producing is another one entirely. It’s a paradox, and I’m not particularly fond of things I can’t explain.” His eyes glittered. “Join me, fall under my rule as the new king of darkness. You’ve squandered your resources enough. We can help with that.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Little man.” Overhaul didn't flinch, but the line of his shoulders told Kurogiri that he was caught off guard by the General’s deep, rumbling voice as he stepped out of the shadows. “You meddle in things you are not welcome in. The League of Villains is already allied with </span>
  <em>
    <span>me.</span>
  </em>
  <span>” His voice cracked like a whip through the charged air of the warehouse.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Magne and Compress, who had both tensed at Overhaul’s words, both paused, waiting for the General to make a move.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The stare down between the specter and the Yakuza man seared and crackled with tension between both sides.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Then it snapped, and faded.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I see.” Overhaul’s voice was carefully flat. “Well, since none of you appear to be interested in sensible conversation, I’ll take my leave.” He pulled a small slip of paper from his coat pocket and flicked it at Compress, who was nearest. “My card, for when you change your mind.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And he left, a careless wave tossed over his shoulder.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I wish I could have crushed his stupid skull,” Magne growled once he was out of the building, grip tightening around her metal pole.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, why didn’t we?” Twice asked, hands on his hips. “<strong>If Dabi and Boil were here, they totally would have roasted his ass.</strong>”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We have bigger plans,”Old Iron said simply, both placating and stopping any further protests with his calm tone. “With the Spirit Nomu, the League will become much stronger than any simple gang could hope to surpass.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We’ll deal with them, don’t worry.” Shigaraki lazily scratched the side of his neck. “After all, they have some things we want. And </span>
  <em>
    <span>no one</span>
  </em>
  <span> is gonna get in our way.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. Regrets In the Dark</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>if you didn't already get it from last chapter, things are gonna start diverging from bnha canon around now</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“I hope tomorrow turns out all right,” Uraraka fretted while leaning forwards to grab her toes. “I mean, I learned a lot from Gunhead, but what if Ryukyu is completely different?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We’ll be fine, Uraraka.” Asui didn’t look up from her own stretching, but her calm voice seemed to ease her friend a bit. “Nejire vouched for us.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku mostly tuned out his friend’s conversation, mind pleasantly blank as he let the faint burn of stretched muscles take his focus. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Iida’s voice eventually caught his attention as his name was called.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What about you, Midoriya? Have you decided on your work study?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, yeah I did.” Izuku glanced up to find most of his friends looking his way. He tugged his arm across his chest, wincing slightly at the twinge his shoulder gave. “I’m going with Nighteye. Mirio suggested it.” He looked over to Shinsou, who was laying flat on the ground in what he insisted was called the nap stretch. “Who are you guys going with? Shinsou?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shinsou blinked lazily up at him, purple bangs falling into his eyes a bit.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Aizawa. Technically he’s taken on an intern before, I think. Something like that, anyways.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I myself have decided to return to my family’s agency.” Iida adjusted his glasses solemnly. “One of my brother’s former sidekicks, Riptide, is willing to take me on.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s great, Iida!” Uraraka patted him on the knee, as that was as high as she could reach at the moment. “We’re all really happy for you.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Do we know who else has a work study?” Izuku asked.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ojiro and Hagakure were reached out to by Ms. Joke, </span>
  <em>
    <span>kero.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Apparently she saw them both at the Exam and was interested.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Tokoyami’s with Hawks again,” Shinsou added. “Two halves of a whole bird.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I heard that Kirishima is going with Tamaki over to Fat Gum’s agency out by Kansai,” Uraraka said thoughtfully. “And apparently he also asked if he could bring Momo along, since she also has a fat-based quirk!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Aww, that’s cool.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Amplifier is taking Jirou and Ashido,” Todoroki said, not looking up from his own warm ups. “Manual was planning on taking some on this year, but he’s still taking leave to recuperate.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He only left the hospital a few days ago,” Aang commented, sounding sad. “I hope he’s getting better.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Their teacher’s voice signaled the end of warm ups, so Izuku accepted a hand up from Iida and split from the rest of his friends to figure out who he was going to come up with combo finishing moves with.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He’d be fighting alongside Mirio at Nighteye’s agency (if he was accepted, that is), but none of his classmates were coming with him. Classmates who were going to the same place were pairing up: Asui and Uraraka, Kirishima and Momo, Shouji and Sero. Even Aang was pitching in alongside Shinsou.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I also do not have a partner,” Tokoyami said, appearing from somewhere behind him. Dark Shadow was a small figure hovering over his shoulder currently. “Shall we team up?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah!” Izuku gave him a thumbs up, more than a little relieved. “You got some ideas?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>About twenty minutes into the class’s steady demolition of the concrete scenery helpfully provided by Cementoss, Present Mic entered the gym. Izuku, who was in the middle of figuring out how to Shoot Style smash after getting thrown by Dark Shadow, didn’t see him until he crashed </span>
  <em>
    <span>into </span>
  </em>
  <span>the small platform he’d been aiming for instead of kicking off of it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Are you alright?” he heard faintly in the distance. Tokoyami sounded apologetic. Dark Shadow, less so, given that he seemed to be laughing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m fine,” he wheezed, giving his partner a thumbs up from where he was currently prone. “Just gimme a sec.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Ow.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sorry, I couldn’t do anything about it,” Izuku heard, and he rolled over in surprise to see their English teacher on the ground level of the gym, talking to Aizawa.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aizawa scowled and replied in a voice too low for Izuku to catch. Present Mic just shrugged ruefully in response, offering a sympathetic grin when the other teacher rolled his eyes. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Get their attention for me?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Present Mic was happy to oblige, turning to the rest of the gym and offering a piercing whistle that prompted every student to stop what they were doing and look to the source.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I need to go fix something. Iida is in charge for the ten minutes until I get back” Aizawa pinned them all with his most ferocious glare. “Do </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> start anything. Talk amongst yourselves, get some water. No fighting.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes, Aizawa-Sensei,” came the ragged chorus in response.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Neat,” Shinsou said, as the rest of the class came trooping over to the sidelines to follow their teacher’s instructions. “Who do you think is getting murdered?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Is it too much to hope for that it's Endeavor?” Todoroki asked in a completely serious tone, accepting his bottle from Izuku. Next to him, Iida choked on his water.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang looked mildly concerned.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Who’s Endeavor?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“A </span>
  <em>
    <span>bitch,”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Todoroki and Shinsou said in perfect unison.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That doesn’t really answer my question, guys.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yo, Baldy.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The class quieted momentarily at the sound of their most volatile classmate’s voice calling out an unfamiliar nickname.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Bakugou stomped over to where Aang was, ignoring everyone’s puzzled and concerned looks. He jabbed the monk in the chest with a stiff finger, jaw clenched.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span> “Fight me.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang rubbed the spot where he’d gotten poked, eyebrows raising.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Like, right now? Or just in general sometime?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Bakugou made a growling sound in the back of his throat.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Yes</span>
  </em>
  <span>, right now, moron. You and me. Sparring. All out.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The whole class was silent at this point, watching the back and forth like a particularly nerve-wracking tennis match.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Umm. Do we have to?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Why? Are you fucking scared?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang just blinked, looking confused rather than offended or self-conscious.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I mean, no. Not really.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Beside Izuku, Shinsou snorted.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“But if you’re angry about something and just want to blow off some steam, I don’t see any harm in just having a friendly match,” Aang continued, giving an increasingly flummoxed Bakugou a sunny smile. “Should be fun, right?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, I don’t think Bakugou even knows what a friendly match </span>
  <em>
    <span>is,”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Kaminari said from behind them. The following squawk implied that he’d gotten smacked by someone, probably Jirou.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Just-” Bakugou gritted his teeth, fists clenched. “Just get </span>
  <em>
    <span>over</span>
  </em>
  <span> here and fight me already.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m pretty sure Aizawa </span>
  <em>
    <span>specifically </span>
  </em>
  <span>said you shouldn’t,” Todoroki said dryly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Todoroki is correct!” Iida interrupted. “We should follow his instructions until Aizawa-Sensei returns.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, come on, man.” Kirishima placed a hand on Bakugou’s shoulder, trying to placate his friend. “It’s your first day back. Let’s wait for a better time, yeah?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Bakugou responded by smacking his hand off and hurling an explosion directly at Aang.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Which Aang simply dispersed upwards with a sharp, circular slice of compressed air. With a rather resigned look on his face, the monk turned and dashed for the high ground in the gym.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Satisfied that he was now getting what he wanted, Bakugou grinned, feral, and blasted himself across the concrete jungle to meet his declared opponent.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku crossed his arms, biting his lip. He genuinely had no idea how this would turn out, and that made him nervous. Because yeah, Aang was powerful and adaptive, even while only using his air element, but Kacchan was well… Kacchan.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Welp, there goes that,” Shinsou said, sounding neither surprised nor upset by this turn of events. “I feel like we should have popcorn or something.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“...do you think we should stop them?” Momo hesitantly asked, eyes glued on the fight now taking place.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I mean- do </span>
  <em>
    <span>you </span>
  </em>
  <span>want to go get between them right now?” Sero asked.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A resounding </span>
  <em>
    <span>boom</span>
  </em>
  <span> shook the gym.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“...that may not be the wisest decision, I suppose.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There was a crashing jumble of noise as Bakugou hammered through one of the pillars. It crumpled into dust and various detritus under the heat and intensity of the explosion.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Above all that, Aang spun neatly out of the way of the impact, landing lightly on top of an adjacent block. Waiting for Bakugou to come after him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Bakugou was more than happy to oblige.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Another burst of wind seared through smoke and fire, one figure flipping gracefully behind the murky confusion in the air, the other dive-bombing with all the subtlety and intent of a depth charge.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Well. It didn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>look</span>
  </em>
  <span> like Bakugou was going to murder Aang in cold blood. So Izuku took a deep breath, and took it all in.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Before, he hadn’t really gotten the opportunity to fully analyze Aang’s fighting style. Watching it now, he could pick out so many more things that seemed to be at the base of how Aang moved.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His motions were crisp, clean, and precise. He almost </span>
  <em>
    <span>danced</span>
  </em>
  <span> across the mock arena, feet always in motion and never seeming to actually touch down on any surface he landed on.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A direct blast from Bakugou was either redirected at the wrist if Aang was close enough or simply dodged all together from any other distance. He almost never blocked. He almost never </span>
  <em>
    <span>needed</span>
  </em>
  <span> too. The fighting philosophy he seemed to be following was simply “don’t be there when the blow lands.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And he wasn’t. Izuku could see how much that fact infuriated Bakugou.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>(Because, well. Kacchan had always been the best. And he didn’t take kindly to any suggestion that he wasn’t.)</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But Aang was </span>
  <em>
    <span>good</span>
  </em>
  <span>. Izuku had watched many martial arts based heroes in his time at UA so far, studying their different styles. Ojiro was fluid and intense, battering down defenses until his opponent had limited options to fall back on. Aizawa was brutally efficient, making sure every single strike he landed </span>
  <em>
    <span>counted.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Aang just went </span>
  <em>
    <span>noooope</span>
  </em>
  <span> until his opponent self-destructed, and then pounced on that.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang fought like a martial arts hero, not an elemental one. And given how staggeringly effective he was, Izuku wondered if the hero industry had been going about some things the wrong way.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As he watched, Aang adapted into something he’d only seen him use briefly at the Licensing Exam, spinning on his back foot to </span>
  <em>
    <span>slam</span>
  </em>
  <span> a snap kick into Bakugou’s side, following up on the motion by kicking off of Bakugou’s hunched shoulder, launching himself out of reach as the other teen swore and swiped out in retaliation.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Ok, so that was fire, wasn’t it… </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Bakugou jetted after him, an enraged shout leaving him as he cradled his palms together, holding onto his explosion until the last possible second.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“DIE!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang dropped, barely avoiding the resulting inferno. He landed in a wide, set stance, and immediately whipped his right arm across his body in a fluid, pulling motion. Bakugou came crashing down a moment later, assisted by the spiral of wind that had ensnared him. He pivoted, then flowed backwards, air ruffling his clothes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Hmm, that looks kind of like Tai Chi. Water, maybe? Then the solid, blocky stances would be earth, but-</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shinsou’s hand slapped over his mouth and Izuku squeaked in surprise.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Come on, motor mouth,” his friend muttered in his ear, exasperated. “Don’t go mumbling out other people’s secrets. He’s bad enough at this as is.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Bakugou jumped to his feet, incensed. Aang just slowly backed up, hands open and at the ready, a calm, if focused look on his face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Stop </span>
  <em>
    <span>running!”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Bakugou roared, charging forwards, both hands ablaze and crackling. Aang darted straight at him in response, but the instant Bakugou went to slam both palms into his chest, he dropped, using his momentum to slide directly between his legs like a baseball player. The monk whipped around mid-slide and directed a focused strike of air at his opponent’s back, blasting him off his feet and into a wall with a resounding </span>
  <em>
    <span>thud.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There was a slight whooping cheer from the assembled students as Aang flipped to his feet once more in a weightless-looking version of a back walkover. He frowned, seeing how far he’d thrown Bakugou and trotted over to the wall where the other boy was slowly picking himself up off the floor.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That was a good fight,” Aang said. He extended a hand in offering. “Do you want to go another round?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku who was gnawing at his bottom lip, froze in mingled horror and suspense, seeing images of Bakugou exploding and smacking the hand away, of hurling himself at Aang in a bloodthirsty rage, of the entire gym coming down on them all as he refused to stop-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But instead of the world ending, Bakugou just gritted his teeth, looked up and gruffly said:</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Show me how you did that last move.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Seemingly unaware of everyone else in the room picking their jaws off the floor, Aang just smiled and did so.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>However, Aizawa was very unamused by the results of the impromptu pit fight when he finally came back.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Whoops.</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>God damn it.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Tsukauchi’s updates were easily understandable and to the point, much like the man himself. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That didn’t mean he had to </span>
  <em>
    <span>like</span>
  </em>
  <span> what they said.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Nighteye’s agency was watching the 8 Precepts for Trigger and another drug that was rumored to be on the market currently. The 8 Precepts seemed to be watching the League of Villains.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Who, based on a lone report from a </span>
  <em>
    <span>very</span>
  </em>
  <span> lucky undercover operative, had gained another member. Large, wearing old-fashioned samurai armor, and vaguely ethereal. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Which fit Aang’s description of General Old Iron perfectly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>So, the League and the Precepts were at odds. That was… not </span>
  <em>
    <span>good,</span>
  </em>
  <span> but it was better than an alliance between them, at any rate. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Iwayama and Zhao however, had disappeared again after their brief skirmish in Hosu.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta shuffled his papers irritably. Among other things, a series of disappearances was going on in the approximate area the police force thought the League was hiding out in. It </span>
  <em>
    <span>could</span>
  </em>
  <span> be Boil, picking up old habits, but it could also be completely unrelated. Some of the profiles he’d been given matched the ones from six years ago, but others were simply completely random. It could be the League, fueling whatever crazy experiments they were pulling off with the General’s assistance, but since only he, Tsukauchi, and a scant few others on the detective’s team were privy to the fact that the League was apparently making new Nomu out of the </span>
  <em>
    <span>souls</span>
  </em>
  <span> of people, it made legwork a bit difficult.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Keeping otherworldly magics on the down-low made plenty of sense, sure, but </span>
  <em>
    <span>damn</span>
  </em>
  <span> if it wasn’t irritating to work around.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta bit down his latest yawn, getting to his feet. The movement dumped Ashes off his lap, and she showed her dissatisfaction at this development by yowling softly, circling his ankles.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, hush,” he muttered, scooping up his newly empty mug. She gave him a bristling look with all the indignation of a wronged feline and flopped over onto her side like a betrayed sack of potatoes. Confident in the safety of his own home, he gave the kitten an eye roll as he moved to the kitchen in search of more coffee.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He checked the time on his phone, the blue screen faintly lighting up the room as he moved through it. 2:12. Hizashi was asleep by now. Hopefully the dorms were still standing over with Kan.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The coffee in the pot was cold. He stared at it for a moment, debating accepting his lot in life versus heating it up again like a functional human being. He looked back over to the taunting stack of papers from the missing persons cases, grimaced, and decided that if he wasn’t going to get much sleep then he at least deserved more than cold coffee.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He was just putting his cup in the microwave when a frosty finger dragged its way down his spine, prompting a shiver. Shouta quickly turned on his heel and cast his gaze back through the doorway. He couldn’t see Aang’s futon from here, but another sudden chill whipped its way past him, blowing his hair off his shoulders.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta let the microwave go for the moment and made his way back into the living room.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang was curled up even more so than usual, fingers clenched tightly in his discarded blanket. He shivered slightly, prompting Shouta to take a cautious step forwards when the ground vibrated in light harmony with Aang’s sleeping form. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Nightmare. But this one was turning out to be more severe than the past occasions.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He was in the middle of debating his course of action when Aang </span>
  <em>
    <span>spasmed</span>
  </em>
  <span>. That was all the warning he got before Aang’s eyes snapped open, glowing and unearthly blue. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Years of honed muscle memory warned Shouta enough to dodge backwards as Aang lunged off the futon, air humming ominously around him. Shouta landed in an improvised crouch a few feet further away, hand uselessly going for the capture weapon he wasn’t currently wearing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Then Aang froze. Literally, in fact. Shouta could see the faint crackle of frost creeping out from beneath Aang’s bare feet as he stood there, stance ready and defensive. The kid’s chest heaved silently, the vibrant glow that extended from his eyes and uncovered tattoos pulsing in time with his desperate breaths.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta slowly straightened up, deliberately lowering his hands.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Aang. It’s Aizawa. You’re in my apartment,” he said, forcing his voice low and calm. “There’s no one else here but me and Hizashi. You’re safe.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang cocked his head at him, staring intently. Slowly, the wind stopped whirling around his form and he wavered, realization breaking through the blank mask his face had become. The glow faded away as swiftly as it had come, leaving Aang to himself, looking dazed and exhausted. The teenager groaned softly, pressing the palm of his hand to his eyes as he dropped back on his heels.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Master Aizawa?” His voice was rough from sleep. “Sorry… it's ok now.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta didn’t hesitate to make his way beside him, making sure to clearly broadcast his movements before kneeling and placing a tentative hand on the teenager’s tense shoulders. The ice underneath them evaporated into silvery mist as Aang breathed out, the temperature in the surrounding air gradually returning to normal.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span> “Are you alright?” Shouta quietly asked, once Aang’s shaky exhales finally evened out. “That must have been some dream.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah… I’m fine.” He could hear the conflicting emotions running through the kid’s subdued tone. “Just an old nightmare.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ah.” He didn’t push it, just let them sit there in the dark for a minute.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Master Aizawa?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hmm?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang hesitated before continuing. When he finally did, his voice was quiet and almost ashamed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Have you ever made a decision that you thought was right but everyone else thought was wrong? Even the people you cared the most about?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta shifted slightly so he could sit beside the teenager, letting his legs stretch out across the wooden floor.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes,” he admitted. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Do you regret it?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang seemed surprised by his honesty. He peered up at him, expression mostly hidden in the minimal moonlight.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Would you tell me about it?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“If you asked me.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang seemed to accept that, nodding slightly and returning his gaze to the floor. The silence hung in the air, drawing out in the darkness, and just when Shouta thought he could suggest sleeping again, Aang spoke once more, soft and defeated.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I wasn’t telling the whole truth about the war, yesterday.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There was something else he was trying to say behind that statement, so Shouta simply looked at him, and listened. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang scrubbed the side of his face, expression blank in a way that spoke of unfortunate experience in trying to forget.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sozin started the war because of the Avatar. My predecessor, Roku, was his friend. They fought, and Roku died. So he-” his voice hitched. “He knew that the next Avatar in the cycle would be an Air N-nomad. So he- he tried to stop it.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His expression dropped even further and Shouta felt his blood turn to ice at his next words.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I didn’t really learn what it was actually called until later,” Aang said, his voice flat and lifeless and horribly calm. “Genocide.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Silence.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I wasn’t there,” he whispered hoarsely. “They were going to send me away and so I </span>
  <em>
    <span>ran,</span>
  </em>
  <span> but they-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang crumpled. His head bowed, shoulders shaking as he wrapped his arms around himself. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And Shouta’s heart broke, just a little bit. Because to cry completely silent was a skill that took too much time to learn. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He reached over, gently pulling Aang closer and that was when the dam broke. The teen clung to him, shaking with his grief, like Shouta was the only thing keeping him from flying apart at seams as so much raw </span>
  <em>
    <span>hurt</span>
  </em>
  <span> poured out of him. Silent tears dripped down, dampening his sleeve.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m the only one left,” Aang managed to choke out. “The last airbender.” His laugh was bitter, more a sob than anything else and Shouta let him talk, because it was clear that this was a long time coming. “I </span>
  <em>
    <span>ran,</span>
  </em>
  <span> like a coward and I couldn’t even </span>
  <em>
    <span>die</span>
  </em>
  <span> properly. I went down into the ice and woke up a hundred years later and the only thing anyone wanted from me was for me to fulfill my duties as the Avatar and go confront the grandson of the man who </span>
  <em>
    <span>murdered my people.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He leaned forwards, gasping, that horrible, broken laugh still forcing its way out of his lungs.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And I couldn’t even do </span>
  <em>
    <span>that right.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Everyone told me to kill him, my friends, my past lives, the entire </span>
  <em>
    <span>world-”</span>
  </em>
  <span> his laugh stopped, shattering into another sob. “But I just </span>
  <em>
    <span>couldn’t. </span>
  </em>
  <span>And </span>
  <em>
    <span>maybe</span>
  </em>
  <span> it’s selfish and </span>
  <em>
    <span>maybe</span>
  </em>
  <span> I made the wrong decision, but my beliefs are the only thing I have left of my people and I couldn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>kill them too.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta wanted to rage and roar and tear people apart, anything to satisfy all the anger and heartbreak sitting in his chest. But he didn’t, because it was late, and he had a fragile, hurting kid clinging to him after pouring his heart out onto his lap, and he was the only one here to help.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span> “You were a kid,” Shouta said softly. “That burden should </span>
  <em>
    <span>never</span>
  </em>
  <span> have been put on your shoulders.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Maybe,” Aang said dully. “But I came so </span>
  <em>
    <span>close.</span>
  </em>
  <span> I could </span>
  <em>
    <span>feel</span>
  </em>
  <span> how much the other Avatars wanted to kill him.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“But you didn’t.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang shook his head.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I took away his bending so he couldn’t hurt anyone ever again. The Lion Turtle showed me how.” He roughly wiped at his cheek with a palm, expression twisting. “But I just don’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>get</span>
  </em>
  <span> it. When I make my own decisions like that, people call me an idiot, or a naive kid who doesn’t know what he’s doing. And then they turn around and expect me to pick up all the broken pieces from a hundred years of hatred and violence and bloodshed.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“When people get scared, they say stupid things,” Shouta managed to say, even as sympathy and stark disbelief at just how </span>
  <em>
    <span>bad</span>
  </em>
  <span> things had turned out for this kid warred in his chest. “They don’t care who, or how. They just want things to stop. But-” he knocked his knuckles gently against Aang’s head. “You can’t control that. And it’s not your fault. You are </span>
  <em>
    <span>not responsible </span>
  </em>
  <span>for the decisions other people make.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I know.” The teenager pressed his hands to his face momentarily, as though trying to forcibly pull himself together. “But there’s so much to do, still.” He laughed weakly, without any real humor in it. “You know, for all the other Avatars, they only get told who they are once they turn sixteen? And here I am, with all of… everything.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was quiet.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m just…” There was a break in Aang’s voice, like a hairline fracture you didn’t know was there until it started hurting again. “I’m just so </span>
  <em>
    <span>tired.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Oh, kid.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And the two of them stayed there in the darkness, until Aang finally fell back asleep, exhausted and drained, still leaning against him, with his fingers unconsciously tangled in the soft fabric of Shouta’s shirt.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta sat there long after he could have silently made his exit, with a heart full of sorrow and a head full of worry.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Because he didn’t know if this was something he could fix.</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p><span>“When we find Aang, I’m going to </span><em><span>kill</span></em> <em><span>him,”</span></em><span> Sokka groaned, smacking his head down on the table. “Get kidnapped on </span><em><span>our</span></em><span> watch again, I’d like to see him </span><em><span>try.”</span></em></p>
<p>
  <span>Katara smacked her brother.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“If you’re just going to complain, you can </span>
  <em>
    <span>leave,”</span>
  </em>
  <span> she spat. With her red-rimmed eyes and unbrushed hair, she was a terrifying sight to behold. Beside her, Toph stole a tart off her plate, even her usually cheerful visage listless and glum.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Easy,” Suki said gently. “We’re all worried, Katara. It’s ok.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Katara slumped down in her seat, leaning back against the cushions.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Just- where </span>
  <em>
    <span>is</span>
  </em>
  <span> he?” Her voice wavered, rough from stress and lack of sleep. “How does he disappear from literally the most secure place in the entire Fire Nation? There’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>nothing.</span>
  </em>
  <span>” She scrubbed her face. “He… he couldn’t just have left us. He didn’t. There’s no way.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We must be missing something,” Zuko insisted. He pulled at his hair absentmindedly, not noticing the fact that it had come down out of his topknot about ten minutes ago. “I’ve studied this stupid castle for </span>
  <em>
    <span>years.</span>
  </em>
  <span> I thought I’d mapped out every paranoid side corridor and secret passage this place </span>
  <em>
    <span>had. </span>
  </em>
  <span>There has to be something else.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No, you’re right, Sparky.” Toph leaned back until she was lying flat on the floor, blank eyes staring upwards as her foot tapped restlessly on the ground. “I went with you, remember. If there was something else here, I would have noticed it. He ain’t here. And nobody could have gotten in or out without you knowing. You’re kinda crazy like that.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Zuko squinted over at her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m not sure if that was a compliment.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Huh.” Sokka sat upright. He rubbed his chin, the unique and intense expression that signaled to his friends that he was thinking a bit more outside the box than the rest of them crossing his face. “So it wasn’t a somebody. What if it was a something?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His friends all stared at him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Like-?” Suki prompted.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well.” Sokka pointed at his sister. “Katara’s right. There’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>no way</span>
  </em>
  <span> that Aang just swanned off on his lonesome. Appa and Momo are still here, for one thing.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And so are we!” Toph protested.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah! We’re important too, Toph.” Sokka pointed at Zuko this time, who raised an eyebrow in his direction. “And His Highness over here is also right. Nobody was sneaking in and out of here the night Aang disappeared. Mai’s too good for that.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Thanks,” Zuko said dryly. “I’ll tell her you said that.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“SO.” Sokka started ticking off points on his fingers. “No one was here, mysterious disappearance, missing for a hand-wavy amount of time, no apparent reason.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Katara pinched the bridge of her nose, drumming her fingers on the low wooden table irritably.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sokka, where are you going with this?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Sokka grinned triumphantly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Remember that time that a bunch of villagers in the forest went missing and then I also went missing?”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0017"><h2>17. Time for Work Studying</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I took a break because you all yelled at me to take care of myself lol<br/>Note from me: by the way, this is not going to be a Team Avatar story? This is an Aang story. Which I feel there aren't enough of. So to everyone who asked- sorry. Also, not going to be adding in any ships.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Izuku was fairly certain that his heart rate didn’t drop back down to normal levels until he and Mirio were about three blocks away from the agency building.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Are you all right?” the older student asked, humor clear in his tone.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku huffed out a sharp breath.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Mirio. Senpai.” He jabbed an accusing finger in Mirio’s rather bemused direction. “I love you, but I can also </span>
  <em>
    <span>never forgive you</span>
  </em>
  <span> for this. Sir Nighteye is </span>
  <em>
    <span>terrifying.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Surely it wasn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> bad.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You’re right.” Izuku leaned back against the nearest wall, closing his eyes. “It was </span>
  <em>
    <span>worse.” </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mirio laughed at his theatrics, somehow making it warm and welcoming rather than pointedly cruel as so many people in Izuku’s life before UA had.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Their patrol was taking them on a wide circuit of the main streets of the city. Sir Nighteye and Bubble Girl were taking a separate patrol of their own in the opposite direction. Izuku was mostly following in Mirio’s trail currently, still slightly intimidated by this whole situation.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The older student tossed a two finger salute at a passing pedestrian, his distinctive walk making his long red cape swing back and forth in time with his footsteps.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mirio’s costume was vibrant and confident, much like himself. The bold lines of red and white accentuated his height and strength, projecting a sort of friendly challenge to any who saw him.The cape was also fun. Izuku supposed that since he could turn intangible at will, there wasn’t much danger of it getting tangled or snagged on things.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I like your costume,” Mirio said, as if sensing the direction his thoughts had gone. “Very sensible!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Thanks,” Izuku said, smoothing a hand down the front of his jumpsuit. He’d added braces to his legs and extra support around his forearms and elbows right before the Licensing Exam, and that choice seemed to be paying off so far. The only real flair he’d kept was his stylized mouthguard and the hood attached to his jumpsuit. He liked the reminder of his first costume, so lovingly made by his mom, and Mei, who had helped him design this one, had said something about “keeping an identifiable silhouette on an otherwise fairly simple design?” Which he supposed made sense. He also liked the homage to his mentor. It almost felt like he was carrying a little piece of All Might with him wherever he went.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh! By the way.” Mirio tilted his head to look down at Izuku as the two of them continued their walk, the sunlight reflecting off of his gold visor. “Hero names! We never shared. What’s yours?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“O-oh.” Izuku rubbed the back of his neck, a sheepish smile swimming up. “It’s Deku.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Huh.” Mirio paused, turning fully to Izuku as the two of them came to a full stop. “That’s an interesting thing to try to live up to. You’re really sure?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku couldn’t help but smile.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah,” he said, sincere. “It’s me taking back something that I should have a long time ago.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mirio patted him on the back enthusiastically, accidentally knocking Izuku a step forwards as he did so.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Good on you! That’s a real sign of a true hero, right there.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku felt his face heat slightly at the open compliment. He tried to hide it by turning his head under the pretense of scoping out the street in front of them, nodding an acknowledgement to a nearby civilian who had waved at him upon recognizing the pair of them as heroes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“A-ah, thanks. What about your hero name?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Lemillion!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku turned to look back at the older student, blinking.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ah, it's a play off of “a million” in English.” Mirio chuckled, shrugging. “And that's how many people I’d like to save, in the end. Because everyone’s one in a million.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s really cool,” Izuku said, feeling his admiration for the older student only grow. He… he could definitely understand why Sir Nighteye had wanted him to inherit One for All.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mirio gave him a thumbs up, grinning.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So let’s go, Deku!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His enthusiasm was infectious. Izuku returned the smile, feeling some of the dread and anxiety that his confrontation with Sir Nighteye had instilled in him wash away under the bright sun that was Mirio’s personality.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“After you, Lemillion!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He may not know how the rest of this work study would go, but he could take it day by day. It was time to patrol.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And neither of them saw the masked man in the alley, carefully watching everything around him with narrowed eyes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Searching for something.</span>
</p><hr/>
<p>
  <span>Work studies were </span>
  <em>
    <span>intense!</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Just like we practiced, Froppy!” Ochako called out to her partner, hands outstretched.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m ready, Uravity.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The broken concrete and pavement groaned and grumbled around them while Ochako held them aloft, gritting her teeth. Asui sprang from her own outcropping to lash out with a tongue attack just as she released her quirk.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>With the combined power of the two of them, rocks thundered down in a hail of crushing force.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The two gigantification villains roared in dismay at the brutal barrage, covering their heads with their arms, foregoing their assault on each other to put up one last defense.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>In the aftermath of Nejire’s Surge attack, both villains crumpled, shrinking back down to human sizes. They fell out of sight into the darkness, and Ochako grabbed Asui to make them both weightless before the other teen whipped them both onto a nearby fire escape to get safely back to the ground. From there, it was a short hop on Asui’s part to get them back onto the street.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Great work, the two of you!” Nejire praised, lightly setting down in front of them. She had an amusingly dainty way of moving, especially when seen in the wake of such a powerful quirk in action.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She was just </span>
  <em>
    <span>so cool,</span>
  </em>
  <span> at least in Ochako’s humble opinion. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ochako knew statistics. Female-presenting heroes were… let’s say </span>
  <em>
    <span>less appreciated</span>
  </em>
  <span> in the grand scheme of things. Public rankings mattered, after all. Some of them took society’s rampant sexualization of them and made it their own, like Midnight and Mt. Lady. Others were constantly belittled for not conforming, like Miruko for being “too crass” or “unapologetic,” or even Ryukyu herself for having what was considered an “ugly” transformation quirk.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was a hard line to walk. But Nejire, or Nejire-chan as she was going by, had found her own path. She seemed to be so comfortable just being </span>
  <em>
    <span>herself.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Not sexy, not brash, just… her own person.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And incredibly powerful as well. There was a </span>
  <em>
    <span>reason</span>
  </em>
  <span> she was part of the Big Three. Wow.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It inspired Ochako, and she could see that it inspired Asui as well.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I agree, that was quite impressive.” The Dragoon Hero had joined them, eyes alight with humor and soft approval. “I’ve never seen a finishing move quite like that one. You two work well together already.” Ryukyu squeezed Nejire’s shoulder, offering her intern a small smile. “Seems Nejire-chan was right. You fit in quite well with both of us.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ochako could feel herself blush, and not for the first time, was grateful for the pink tint to her helmet visor.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Did you see where the villains went down?” Asui asked, addressing the older student. “You had a better vantage point. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Kero.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Nejire pursed her lips, shading her eyes rather uselessly in the nighttime light. She pointed off to a narrow alleyway in between two buildings not too far from where the four of them currently were.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“From where I was, it looked like they returned to normal size around there.” Nejire glanced to her mentor, who nodded. “Do you think you two could get over there and secure the area? They may need medical attention, but be careful. Both of you have your cuffs, right?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Both students nodded dutifully, confirming. Nejire smiled brightly at the two of them, proud.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We’ll come get you in a moment.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ochako adjusted her helmet, glancing at her current partner.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ready to go?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Her friend blinked slowly in conformation before turning and using her distinctive leaping run to move towards their destination.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Asui, ever the nimble one, reached the alleyway ahead of her. But then she stopped, abruptly, almost causing a collision as Ochako backpedaled to avoid crashing into her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You ok?” she asked, leaning around Asui. She only got a pitiful croak in response, and upon looking at the alleyway in front of them, she understood why.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ochako stumbled backwards, clapping a hand over her mouth in horror.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There were no villains in the alleyway. At least, not anymore.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She could almost fool herself that it all was paint, just paint, if only the bitter, coppery scent didn’t coat her tongue the instant she breathed in.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Gore coated the pavement and dimly lit brick walls of the area. Ochako reached out blindly for Asui, the two of them squeezing each other’s hand tightly as they did their best to not look at the charred flesh and shards of bone and </span>
  <em>
    <span>who knows</span>
  </em>
  <span> what else in front of them. The air was thick with smoke and the pungent, horrendous stench of burnt body matter.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Bile rose in Ochako’s throat and she quickly pulled Asui out of the alley with her, hearing a choked keen from her friend at the scene they’d just witnessed. They practically bolted for Nejire.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Nejire, who had been coming to join them, immediately pulled both of them into a quick hug when they stumbled into range. She pulled back just enough to get a good look at their white, drawn faces, an alarmed expression of her own crossing her features.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What happened?” she asked urgently. “Are you alright?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You need to tell Ryukyu to come see this,” Asui croaked. “It’s bad.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Show me,” Nejire said after a moment, beckoning to her mentor across the way. Ochako swallowed, but complied, leading them back to the scene.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A few terse minutes passed as the students processed what they’d seen and waited for the licensed hero to make her way over.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Nejire-chan?” Ryukyu was frowning, concern clear in the set of her body as she came closer, glancing over the three of them before focusing on her first intern once more. “What happened to the gigantification villains?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“They’re not here,” Nejire said, looking a little green at the carnage in front of them. “Y-you should come see this.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ryukyu zeroed in on the mingled horror between them and her back straightened, instantly on guard.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Stay back if you can,” she ordered, voice low with the barest hint of a growl deepening her words. “Let’s have a look.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The second look was just as horrible as the first. Ochako averted her eyes, linking her fingers with both Asui and Nejire as the three students let the hero take over.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ryukyu stalked the scene, stride swift and predatory as she scanned the entirety of the apparent bloodbath. Her intense gaze snapped back and forth to take everything in. She finally let her shoulders drop after a short time of this and stared at the nearest wall, just barely lit up by a nearby streetlamp.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I think I can make sense of some of this, at least,” the Dragoon Hero said, professionally contemplative. She crossed her arms, her vision locked on whatever she had found. “We need to alert the police force. And Nighteye’s agency. They should know about this.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ochako edged sideways with her friends to get a look at the spot of interest on the wall, acutely aware of the unpleasant sensation of tacky, partially dried blood under her boots. Her eyes widened.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The sign of the 8 Precepts was spray painted on the wall in broad black lines. And in two bloody handprints, a massive X was streaked across it, essentially crossing it out.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What does this mean?” Asui asked, voice shaky.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ryukyu frowned, draconic eyes sharpening and growing grim.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It means that someone is declaring war on the 8 Precepts.”</span>
</p><hr/>
<p>
  <span>As it turns out, work study with Eraserhead meant a lot of running around on rooftops in what probably constituted hazardous lighting.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hitoshi wanted to curse out his companions for being so much lighter on their feet than he was, but Aang’s possible sad face made him feel guilty thinking about that and he’d prefer not to get murdered via intensive training by Aizawa, thanks. Also, it was dark. Jumping buildings and rolling into landings and generally avoiding falling to his death were all things made much harder when he couldn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>see where he was going.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The next roll crunched his shoulder a bit as he came out of it and he winced, shaking out his arm as they continued.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The lighting for the city is pretty bad,” he attempted to remark casually. “Rough time for those of us running around on night patrols, huh?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You’ll get used to it,” his teacher returned. “Visibility tends to get bad in a lot of situations. So we adapt.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Do I need night vision goggles?” Hitoshi stated calmly, because he was </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> complaining, absolutely not.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aizawa hummed thoughtfully as they all slowed down somewhat to have this conversation.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s not a bad idea. Underground heroes do a lot of work in later hours.” He tapped his own yellow goggles, currently strung around his neck. “I can’t use them outside of the odd rare circumstance because my quirk has to have a direct line of sight. Hence the rather low-tech solution for mine.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Huh. Hitoshi had wondered about that actually.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Uh, I can see in the dark really well,” Aang cut in, raising a tentative finger. “Is that helpful?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Uh.” Hitoshi stared at Aang, feeling his eyebrows go up. “I mean, I guess you’ll be the one least likely to accidentally crash into a trashcan tonight, but what does that even </span>
  <em>
    <span>mean?”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang tapped the bridge of his nose, thoughtful.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We actually did a test on this with my friends right after the war ended, because Sokka was suspicious about me sneaking out on Appa all the time. Turns out, out of all of us, I can see the best in the dark. Well, except for Toph, but she’s blind so the dark doesn’t really make a difference anyways.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m sorry, </span>
  <em>
    <span>what.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“But yeah! I think it has something to do with the Avatar spirit? I mean, my friends tell me that my eyes and airbending tattoos light up sometimes from that. Maybe that’s why.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s fascinating,” Aizawa said, interrupting with a long-suffering look on his face. “But if the two of you don’t mind, I’d like to continue our patrol. Mindblank, you </span>
  <em>
    <span>are</span>
  </em>
  <span> technically doing a work study, you know.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Does this even count as a work study?” Hitoshi asked, making a face of his own. “I mean we’re hunting… spirits, right? Not exactly in the hero manual.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We’re doing work, and you’re learning from it,” Aizawa said dryly. “I don’t see what’s so different about that.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What about me?” Aang asked mid leap, watching both Hitoshi and Aizawa jump the gap like normal people instead of stupidly graceful airbenders.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You don’t technically exist here, Aang. There’s no paperwork for you.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“But in all seriousness,” Aizawa said as the three of them pulled up on the edge of another building. “As an underground hero, you’ll often be called upon to deal with situations that no one else knows how to handle. It’s good to try to prepare yourself for the unexpected, as much as possible.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“How crazy does it get?” Aang asked from his position on top of a nearby pole, sounding genuinely curious. Hitoshi bit down a snicker as their teacher gave Aang the most jaded, exasperated look he’d ever had the pleasure of seeing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“Very</span>
  </em>
  <span> crazy.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang looked appropriately impressed and conciliatory.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Anyways.” Aizawa brushed some hair out of his face, giving the view they’d stopped at a cursory look. “Aang, any spirits?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang twirled his staff in his hands in what seemed to be an unconscious habit, head tilted as though listening for something.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“There aren’t many here,” he said after a few beats of contemplation. “There’s a pretty powerful one somewhere in the city. There’s only two others after that, though.” He closed his eyes briefly, and when he opened them again, a luminescent blue reflected in his scleras, turning them unearthly and vaguely disconcerting. Aang blinked, and the moment passed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’ve extended my Avatar spirit as far as I can.” Aang hopped off his perch, floating back down to them. “They’ll know I’m here now, and hopefully they’ll come find me.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Is there a downside to that?” Hitoshi asked, curious despite himself. Aang waved his hand in a </span>
  <em>
    <span>so-so</span>
  </em>
  <span> gesture.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well, if they’re friendly, I can send them home. If they’re </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> friendly, then I just gave them the signal to attack me.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Which is not ideal,” Aizawa said sternly. “We are going to hope it doesn’t come to that.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That was when, of course, Aang got tackled off the roof by an invisible something.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang’s yelp of surprise was quickly drowned out as he fell out of view, Aizawa’s scarf reaching for him just a second too late to stop his downwards momentum.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I swear to God…” the teacher grumbled, sounding much less worried than Hitoshi would have expected after just watching one of his students </span>
  <em>
    <span>get flung off a four story building.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He must have made some sort of noise in disbelief because Aizawa looked over to him and said:</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He’ll be fine. He can basically fly.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Right, right.” Hitoshi grumbled and secured his vocal modulator. “We’re going after him, right?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aizawa didn’t answer in favor of jumping off the building himself.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Of fucking course,” Hitoshi muttered, and did his best to follow.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Turns out, Aang didn’t die. That was good. But, he </span>
  <em>
    <span>was</span>
  </em>
  <span> currently in a very strange-looking battle with something neither Hitoshi or Aizawa could see, which made it a bit of a confusing match to follow.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Look out!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hitoshi leapt backwards as Aang’s staff </span>
  <em>
    <span>cracked </span>
  </em>
  <span>down on something in front of him. Aizawa seemed to gain something from that, lashing out at once with a kick that seemed to connect, given the reverberating sound that rang out.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang twirled into range once more, staff a silver blur in his hands as he pivoted and struck upwards, blasting a fierce updraft of wind straight up into the sky. He followed up on that by tilting his head backwards to presumably follow the resulting trajectory of the spirit and nonchalantly dashing off to meet it when it landed. You know, like he hadn’t just </span>
  <em>
    <span>punted </span>
  </em>
  <span>something into the fucking </span>
  <em>
    <span>stratosphere</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aizawa stopped next to Hitoshi, the two of them a safe distance away from Aang and his opponent.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ok, this was getting </span>
  <em>
    <span>really</span>
  </em>
  <span> confusing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The teacher’s head moved slightly back and forth as he tried to track movement based on Aang’s position alone.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Aang, what is it?” he called out.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t know!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What do you mean, you </span>
  <em>
    <span>don’t know?” </span>
  </em>
  <span>Hitoshi yelled over at him, almost offended.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Do you know how many spirits there are in the Spirit World?” Aang called back, exasperated. “I don’t know </span>
  <em>
    <span>most</span>
  </em>
  <span> of them!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ok, that was fair.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang pushed off the nearest wall in an overly long backflip, bouncing off of a lamppost barely a moment later.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“They’re not exactly giving me a chance to send them back!” The monk squeaked and slashed his staff across his front, a metal trash can crashing back down to earth from where it had been thrown at him. “I don’t want to break anything, either!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They’d made their way to a park by now. Hitoshi dove over a bench and came up kneeling, finding a modicum of cover. Aang zoomed by as Aizawa took to the high ground, hanging off of the nearest building with his capture scarf in hand, intently following the miscellaneous debris the spirit seems to have decided to start throwing as a distraction.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Mindblank.” Hitoshi glanced up at his hero name, zeroing in on his teacher. “Try using your quirk on the spirit.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I can’t even </span>
  <em>
    <span>see</span>
  </em>
  <span> it!” Hitoshi yelled, stifling a rather undignified yelp as a dumpster sailed far too close for comfort. “How do you expect me to do </span>
  <em>
    <span>anything?”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aizawa landed next to him, goggles in place.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Breathe,” he instructed calmly. “Focus.” They both ducked once again as Aang threw out a protective wall of wind and whipped a park bench off its current trajectory to send it spiraling over their heads. “If you feel it, activate it.” A firm hand was placed on his shoulder, a grounding presence in this situation. “You can do this.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hitoshi gritted his teeth, feeling some of the instinctive anxiety that had bubbled up settle back down at his teacher’s words. He took one breath, then two. Then a third for good measure.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ok,” he said under his breath. “Here goes nothing.” He started running forwards, dodging obstacles as best he could. No clue if he was actually in range, but he may as well try?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey! Ugly!” Hitoshi managed to shout, cringing internally. What was he, five? “Watch where you’re aiming!” He waved in the general direction he thought the spirit would be based on Aang’s acrobatics. “Yeah, I’m talking to you!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Nothing. Hitoshi growled.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“</span>
  <em>
    <span>Hey, </span>
  </em>
  <span>you’re pretty damn useless, you know that?!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And his eyes widened as the barest, gossamer thread filtered through and-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Gotcha.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <b>“Stop moving and let Aang send you home.”</b>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A startled form that seemed to be part lion, part… rock? Maybe? Bamfed into existence with a comically surprised look on its face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>I can’t believe that actually worked.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang immediately dropped to the ground to take advantage of the opportunity Hitoshi had given him. The spirit, still frozen from Hitoshi’s command, stood as still as- er, stone. Aang slid his feet together and took a deep breath. His eyes opened, gleaming with light. Unfamiliar hand motions slashed through the air.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Watch your eyes,” Aizawa commented, shading his own with one hand.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hitoshi, being the rebellious and anti-social person that he was, opted to try to get a better look at what was happening.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Ow,</span>
  </em>
  <span> that was like looking at the sun when your parents told you not to.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hitoshi scrubbed at his eyes, white coronas flaring behind closed eyelids despite him having looked away after a moment. Okay, that may have been a </span>
  <em>
    <span>little</span>
  </em>
  <span> dumb. The spirit was gone now, though.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang sighed and dropped his hand, a little unsteady on his feet. He turned back to Hitoshi and Aizawa, apprehension flickering across his features for the smallest of moments before disappearing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“One more down,” he said. The monk looked over at Hitoshi with a discerning eye. “That was your quirk, wasn’t it?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah,” Hitoshi said, wary. “You haven’t seen it before, have you?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang shook his head slightly. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No. It-” he hesitated. “It reminds me of bloodbending, actually.” His expression was hard to read. “The taking control part.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You don’t like it,” Hitoshi said flatly, unable to hold back the instinctive bitterness that welled up still at such reactions to his quirk.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang paused, grasping at his staff.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I didn’t like bloodbending because the first time I saw it in action, it almost killed my friends and forced someone I care about to go against her morals,” he said simply, meeting Hitoshi’s eyes. He dipped his chin, face intent and serious. “The person who used it on me was trying to hurt me. It’s as simple as that. And even if your power shares some things with bloodbending, that doesn’t matter in the end.” Aang shrugged. “Because you </span>
  <em>
    <span>actively chose</span>
  </em>
  <span> to become a hero with your power. That’s what's important, really.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And having control taken away from you doesn’t scare you?” Hitoshi challenged. Even though he really </span>
  <em>
    <span>shouldn’t</span>
  </em>
  <span> because he needed to stop trying to push people </span>
  <em>
    <span>away-</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang’s lips quirked in a resigned smile.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Every time I use the Avatar State, control is taken away from me. I’ve learned to move past that.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Well shit,</span>
  </em>
  <span> thought Hitoshi.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You both ready to keep going?” Aizawa addressed both of them now, the bottom half of his face hidden in his scarf. Dark eyes flickered over Hitoshi, making him feel more exposed than he had in a while. He coughed, turning his head to avoid both of their gazes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, just- give me a moment.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hitoshi walked a little further away. He tilted his head back after a few steps, knitting his fingers behind his head and taking a moment to let his stomach settle.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Well. That hadn’t been… </span>
  <em>
    <span>terrible.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Fuck </span>
  <em>
    <span>me,”</span>
  </em>
  <span> he groaned softly, smacking his forehead with a closed fist. “Head on straight, drama queen. Save it for later.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He took another stabilizing, deep breath a few seconds later and turned back to the others, confident that he had a handle on his emotions once more.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang shouted something in alarm and then Hitoshi’s feet were no longer on the ground.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Shit! </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He twisted in alarm as the wind rushed in his ears. His invisible captor clutched tighter around his chest and he grabbed at the grasp instinctively, wincing. Like a burst of electricity over his skin, the spirit rippled into view, showing feathers of blue and red and golden talons and a </span>
  <em>
    <span>very long way down. </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He opened his mouth to yell at the spirit, but said talons suddenly </span>
  <em>
    <span>constricted,</span>
  </em>
  <span> forcing precious air out of his lungs and effectively stopping his efforts to Brainwash it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hitoshi did his best not to panic and stopped struggling for the moment to catch his breath and reevaluate the situation, though the grip the spirit had on him felt like it was slowly crushing his rib cage. He was getting further away from the others by every passing second, and he could not fly, unlike some people.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Please don’t let me die by magical spirit bird that no one else can see or believe in. </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The wind picked up, cold and fresh and unexpected. Hitoshi looked down once again, pushing away his vertigo.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang was the source of the change, whipping up a veritable tornado beneath him, arms moving in constant circles to keep his wind twisting around both him and his spirit captor. The beating of the wings above him stuttered in their tempo, a disgruntled sound wafting down as the spirit’s flight began to become hindered. Then slowed. Then stopped, though it tried desperately to continue to gain more height.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The air roared around them, the wind tunnel effectively prevented the spirit from escaping with its prey. They were stalled. But Hitoshi was still </span>
  <em>
    <span>way </span>
  </em>
  <span>too far up for comfort.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>What to do what to do what to do-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He didn’t have the arm strength to pry a giant raptor loose and it was difficult to get any leverage dangling in this position. His scarf was of no use in this situation, if he could even get it off his shoulders in the first place.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But as his teacher had </span>
  <em>
    <span>heavily stressed</span>
  </em>
  <span> during their training, you don’t carry such a tangle-prone weapon without a quick means of escaping it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hitoshi grabbed at his thigh pocket, grimacing. His fingers closed around the knife stashed there and he yanked, freeing it from its tactical sheath. Then he thrashed, wheeling his arm back as far as it could go and </span>
  <em>
    <span>slashing </span>
  </em>
  <span>at whatever he could reach.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The swipe sheared through feathers and did nothing other than prompt a squawk from the spirit. Hitoshi gritted his teeth as the world spun around him from lack of oxygen, light-headed. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He slashed upwards again, and this time, it connected. There was a shrill shriek that rattled through his brain, dazing him momentarily as the talons let go.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And then he was free-falling.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>I did not think this through.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Everything was moving very quickly around him, sights and sounds blurring together until-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Familiar fabric </span>
  <em>
    <span>tightened</span>
  </em>
  <span> around his chest and under his arms like some sort of makeshift harness. Hitoshi caught the quickest glimpse of his teacher as he fell past, his brain finally catching up with his body as the contact shocked him back into a moment of clarity.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Training kicked in and he grabbed the scarf with both hands, bracing for the yank that would come when he reached the bottom of the swing. He was grateful for his gloves as the friction built up in his palms, his fall starting to move sideways by the second until-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Snap.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hitoshi couldn’t help the pained wheeze that escaped him as something in his already abused ribs </span>
  <em>
    <span>cracked,</span>
  </em>
  <span> sending lightning bolts of agony streaking through his side. He grappled at the scarf for a moment, trying not to kick and make the swinging any worse than it already was.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>When his swinging finally slowed to a halt, he glanced up for his teacher. Aizawa was perched on the lamppost above him, his capture weapon wrapped around the top of it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Are you hurt?” the teacher demanded, beginning the process of lowering Hitoshi to the ground. Hitoshi managed a dazed nod.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Oh, he was on the ground, now. That’s nice.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aizawa was in front of him before he knew it, gentle fingers tilting his chin back and forth and his teacher looked him over, thinly veiled concern in his eyes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Doesn’t look like a concussion. What hurts?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ribs,” Hitoshi managed to say in what was more of a squeak than anything else. Ow. “Cracked.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aizawa ducked his chin in a nod, still bracing Hitoshi with one hand.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Keep standing. Don’t bend over.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>In the background, there was another flash of light. Aang hurried over to Hitoshi a moment later, looking worried.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Are you ok?” he asked.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Peachy.” Hitoshi winced. “Thanks for the save.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang smiled, though the concern didn’t leave his face, and turned to Aizawa.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Can I heal him?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aizawa gave him a </span>
  <em>
    <span>look.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Aang…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“There’s no one else around,” Aang protested. “I checked.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aizawa pinched the bridge of his nose.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Fine. Be quick.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What is that?” Hitoshi asked suspiciously as Aang came back to him after a moment, a sphere of water from the nearby pond suspended in his hands.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang blinked at him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Water?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I </span>
  <em>
    <span>know</span>
  </em>
  <span> it’s water. What are you </span>
  <em>
    <span>doing</span>
  </em>
  <span> with it?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Healing, hopefully.” The water shifted to cover his hands, so that he looked like he was wearing clear, liquid gloves. “I won’t be able to fix all of it, but this should take some of the pain and bruising down.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hitoshi hissed at the cold touch as the water soaked into his costume, bleeding onto his skin. Then, as he watched, Aang’s hands started to </span>
  <em>
    <span>glow.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His side lit up blue like some sort of over-saturated glowstick. Breathing got a little easier, and the pain that had been steadily throbbing ever since his fall faded a bit, until it was an irritation rather than a beacon.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Aang, you’re crazy,” Hitoshi managed to say, staring in disbelief at the water now flowing back off him and directed onto the grass as Aang finished </span>
  <em>
    <span>whatever</span>
  </em>
  <span> he’d just done.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Thanks?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Aang,” Aizawa said sharply, cutting both of them off. “Something’s here.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang’s head snapped up, shocked.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“There aren’t any humans, I checked with earthbending!” he said, stricken.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s not human,” Aizawa said grimly. “You said there were three spirits, right?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hitoshi and Aang both stared at each other wide-eyed before turning to follow Aizawa’s gaze.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Oh, yeah. That was definitely a spirit.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The spirit </span>
  <em>
    <span>roared</span>
  </em>
  <span>, an eldritch monstrosity in blacks and whites that made Hitoshi’s eyes hurt. It was too long of limb and too bulky and too </span>
  <em>
    <span>lean</span>
  </em>
  <span> all at the same time as it loped towards them, feet barely even touching down on solid ground with the blinding amount of speed it was moving.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And then Aizawa was there, scarf adrift over his tense shoulders and a hand keeping Hitoshi and Aang behind him protectively. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hei Bai!” Aang shouted, delighted. He dashed forwards around Aizawa- who minutely relaxed upon hearing Aang call out the name- before springing up and throwing his arms around the white and black… spirit? Beast? Creature? Hitoshi was still banking on spirit since Aang clearly knew it, and a friendly spirit considering that it was letting Aang hang off its neck like some sort of overly-determined hugging python. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The spirit rumbled, deep and gentle, and tossed his head back and forth, swinging a delighted Aang through the air.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hitoshi turned and stared at Aizawa. His teacher, the bastard, just shrugged with an almost-invisible smirk on his face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s been </span>
  <em>
    <span>ages,” </span>
  </em>
  <span>Aang was saying, feet touching down on the ground once more. “How’s the forest? Growing well?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aizawa seemed to take pity on Hitoshi as he gawked at the bizarre scene in front of him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Aang knows Hei Bai from his world. He’s been trying to get in touch with him for a few days now.” The teacher returned his calm gaze to the spirit, who was still minorly terrifying, thank you very much. “I guess he managed to find him.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No kidding,” Hitoshi muttered, dragging a hand down his face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Why do you have your scary face on?” Aang asked back over with his spirit friend, squishing the overly-toothy, monstrous maw between his hands. “What’s going on, buddy? What’s wrong?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hei Bai whined and tilted his head back. He ruffled his whole body, like a dog shaking off water, and the large, twisted shape that they all were looking at shrank, muddled, blended together until-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A much more familiar form stood before them. Still enormous, black and white.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s a panda,” Hitoshi said, too far past surprised to even be bothered by this latest development.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang frowned, glancing over his shoulder back at him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What’s a panda?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hitoshi just stared at him incredulously.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You know, I’m not even gonna explain. Nope. See how </span>
  <em>
    <span>you </span>
  </em>
  <span>like being on the other side of crazy for once.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang made a face at him that conveyed exactly what he thought of </span>
  <em>
    <span>that.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The massive spirit nudged Aang with his snout and rumbled once again. The monk paused, thinking, and replied after a moment in a different language that Hitoshi didn’t recognize. Hei Bai gruffed in response, fur raising along his back and ruff at his neck. Aang stepped back and tilted his head.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He says he found… a cub?” Aang said tentatively, sounding at a loss.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“A cub,” Hitoshi repeated blankly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“A child?” Aizawa said barely a beat later, stepping forwards with his gaze fixed sharply on the spirit. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hei Bai </span>
  <em>
    <span>growled.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Aang frowned and pressed his palm to the spirit’s chest, seemingly calming him when the spirit just muttered in response and twitched his ears.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“She was running and scared, so he traveled with her to make her less afraid,” Aang translated.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Can you… lead us to this child?” Aizawa asked, ever pragmatic, though a line of worry creased his face ever so slightly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hei Bai grumbled softly, turning back to the shadow behind him. The space behind him rippled as they watched, until a weird kaleidoscope streak smeared across reality and took form.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A pair of wide red eyes, framed by dirty, tangled locks of white hair, peeked out from behind Hei Bai’s softly furred flank.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0018"><h2>18. That Good Night Is Not Gentle</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>lets play "how much does the author hate villain monologues" this chapter</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“How to hide two teen heroes, a rescued child and a giant panda bear” sounded like the set-up for a truly terrible joke, and yet somehow that’s how Shouta’s evening was going.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>An empty parking lot outside of Tsukauchi’s precinct had been the best option for the moment. At this time of night, there were no cars or pedestrians, and the people working for the detective already knew the full situation.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So.” Tsukauchi eyed Shouta, his arms crossed across the chest of his trenchcoat. “Just what </span>
  <em>
    <span>did</span>
  </em>
  <span> you bring me this time? Besides the… panda.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta gave him his best teacher glare, but Tsukauchi had dealt with All Might level bullshit for too long. He was unaffected.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“My best guess is an abuse case.” Shouta tapped his forearm, in reference to the bandages marching their way up and down the girl’s arms and legs. “But these injuries look too systematic and even beyond that, that’s professional level first aid. Usually, abusers don’t bother to patch up their victims.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Unless they have something to hide,” Tsukauchi pointed out.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Or a plan for it.” Shouta glanced back at the kid. She was silent and non-emotive even now, in Aang’s company, who Shouta knew for a fact was a force of nature all of his own when it came to bright personalities. “Eri hasn’t said anything really concrete yet. We’re going to have to take this slow.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eri- whose name had been coaxed out of her by Aang- blinked and looked up at the sound of her name and before burrowing back down into the spirit’s fur. Hei Bai yawned in that same moment, flashing a set of unsettlingly sharp fangs at everyone.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We’ll need to take her to the hospital at one point,” the detective said, thoughtfully watching the scene. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“She won’t leave Hei Bai’s side and he seems remarkably unwilling to keep Aang’s world a secret,” Shouta returned dryly. “A giant panda spirit may be a </span>
  <em>
    <span>bit</span>
  </em>
  <span> much for your average hospital to handle. And that’s without mentioning that he </span>
  <em>
    <span>rescued</span>
  </em>
  <span> her from who knows where.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Tsukauchi groaned, rubbing his eyes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You know, my job used to be simpler. Not much, but at least I usually knew what everything involved. Hell, </span>
  <em>
    <span>All Might</span>
  </em>
  <span> was an easier secret to keep than this.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You have my sympathies on that one,” Shouta muttered.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It was worth it,” Tsukauchi said quietly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was silent for a few somber seconds.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Tsukauchi.” The detective looked at him. Shouta frowned, carefully choosing his words. “With Boil, the League, and the 8 Precepts all starting to get tangled up in this same spirit mess- it may be time to let others into our circle.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Tsukauchi heaved a sigh.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I was thinking the same thing, honestly. The repercussions of this have gotten too serious for us to not tell the hero agencies.” He rested a hand on the seam of his coat pocket, gaze serious. “Who do you think should be told?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Nighteye’s agency, for sure.” Shouta ticked off his fingers, mentally going through names. “The faculty at UA. Ryukyu’s agency, since they’ve gotten involved already. Fat Gum.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Tsukauchi nodded, apparently approving of the choices.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I have some other officers that I can let in. Widen our search a bit.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And that would mean we can take Eri back to UA for the moment,” Shouta pointed out. “Recovery Girl can look her over, and Hei Bai is easier to hide on campus.” They both looked over to the large form of the spirit in question, curled up on the pavement, eyes closed, content with the kids resting on his back.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t like this,” Tsukauchi eventually said. “Too much doesn’t quite add up.” The detective let his gaze wander over the kids and the spirit, back to the building where Sansa and Shinsou had disappeared into a few minutes ago, then back to Shouta. “The League and the Precepts are having what essentially amounts to a turf war.” Tsukauchi clicked his fingers, pensive. “Which if by what Nighteye’s agency has observed, may be for control of the Trigger we’ve found the Precepts distributing. Drug trade is profitable, and with All for One put away, the League needs all the backing they can get.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And then there’s the murders. With no bodies left behind,” Shouta added grimly. “And while the… scenes fit with what Boil has done in the past, he usually leaves his victims to be found by law enforcement.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Right. Which if Aang’s information is correct, implies the creation of more… Spirit Nomu.” Tsukauchi grimaced upon saying that. “So what’s the spirit’s stake in this?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta frowned.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I may have an idea.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>At Tsukauchi’s raised eyebrow, he sighed, stepped a few feet further away from the kids and lowered his voice before continuing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“From just what I’ve noticed in these events concerning Aang and the spirits, there are two dominant sentient species in his world. Humans and spirits.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s a headache all of its own,” the detective murmured. Shouta inclined his head in agreement.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Spirits are confined to the Spirit World for the most part, it seems. Based on these hostilities and the fact that Aang referred to their excursion here as a “jailbreak,” it's safe to assume that a good amount of spirits are… disenchanted with the idea of humans running the show.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So- a coup on a worldwide scale?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“More than that.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“More-” Tsukauchi’s eyes narrowed in understanding, glancing back over to the monk happily chatting to Eri in low tones. “They want to break the line of succession.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“If Aang is called the Bridge between their worlds, then it makes sense that the General doesn’t want a human to have that sort of power,” Shouta said grimly. “Take away </span>
  <em>
    <span>their</span>
  </em>
  <span> “Symbol of Peace,” in a sense.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The detective pressed a hand to his face, muttering a swear in English that he probably picked up from All Might. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“This whole situation is a trap.” Tsukauchi locked eyes with Shouta. “To get him alone and vulnerable.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta nodded, unease dampening the air around them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The League, the Nomu, the turf war- all of those are just insurance. Keeping the League on his side. What the General really wants, is Aang.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So.” Tsukauchi looked pointedly at the congregation forming around Hei Bai. Seemed Sansa and Shinsou had returned. “Do we tell him?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta grimaced.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“If what I’ve learned over the past few weeks is any indication, the kid is self-sacrificial to a fault. We tell him that the General is doing all this-” he gestured vaguely around them. “Killing all these people, just because he wanted to get to him?” Shouta shook his head. “It would horrify him. He’d sprint off to go find the League all by himself the second we turned our backs.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The two of them stood there, contemplative, watching Shinsou as he moved back over to Aang and Eri, bearing a blanket and a few water bottles. He looked warily up at Hei Bai before sighing and cautiously accepting Aang’s hand up to join him and Eri on the spirit’s back. The blanket, he hesitantly draped around the young girl’s shoulders; the water, he gave to Aang after taking one for himself.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was a funny thing to watch; Shinsou was amusingly awkward around the young girl in a sweet sort of way. Aang seemed perfectly at ease, tucking a corner of the blanket around Eri and throwing a teasing grin in his friend’s direction.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So we don’t tell him yet,” Tsukauchi said quietly. “What now, then?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We play it safe. We keep an eye on them.” Shouta turned back to the detective. “I’ll take the four of them back to U.A. for the night, if that’s alright with you. Let the kids get some rest, and see what we can do for Eri once she starts talking a little more.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sounds reasonable,” Tsukauchi agreed. “I’ll leave that to you and see what I can dig up on my end.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang tipped some water out of his plastic bottle in the background and swirled it up into the air in front of Eri’s wide eyes. He grinned at her, saying something Shouta didn’t catch, but the young girl nodded shyly. The monk spun the water in between his hands, making various shapes and spirals of water to her evident awe, ending by freezing it into a long icicle and offering it to her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eri stared at it for a moment before taking it, eyes widening as she was startled by the cold. Aang laughed quietly and made another icicle out of the remaining water, handing this one to Shinsou. The other teen glared at him halfheartedly before sticking it in his mouth. Eri seemed emboldened by that and promptly stuffed her own in her mouth as well.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Right, and then there's that.” Tsukauchi pinched the bridge of his nose. “I have no clue how to write the report on this.”</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>Kansai was brightly lit up and bustling that evening.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Fat Gum was clearly popular, called out to by vendors and food stands as they continued their patrol. He returned all the greetings cheerfully, easily picking out names and faces and gratefully accepting any gifts of food items he was given. It seemed to be a popular activity in this area.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Tamaki was up in front of them with his mentor, hands in his pockets and avoiding eye contact with pretty much everyone.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Momo was walking beside Eijirou, looking nervous, the gentle tapping of her combat boots the loudest sounds she’d made in over ten minutes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ki- Red Riot?” Momo finally said, catching herself.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eijirou gave her a smile to show he was listening and didn’t fault her for the slip. A proper smile, not like the ones he’d used to tentatively show when he was younger and trying not to scare other kids with his teeth.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What’s up?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I… I wanted to thank you.” His classmate fidgeted with the collar of her hero costume, the new one she’d had made for the recent exam. “You didn’t have to extend your invitation to me, but you did. I’m not sure what I can do for you in return, but-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey, no no.” Eijirou turned fully and grabbed her hands. “Creati. You deserved to have a great work study.” She looked up at him then, a slight crease between her eyes at his words. “Fat Gum is </span>
  <em>
    <span>perfect</span>
  </em>
  <span> for you to work with. Besides-” he grinned again. “I can’t leave my red buddy out in the cold! We match!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The smallest smile upturned Momo’s lips and Eijirou considered that his biggest victory tonight.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So do we… just walk around for patrol?” she asked, tugging on the end of her ponytail. “I’ve never actually done a patrol before.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eijirou shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Neither have I, actually,” he admitted. “Fourth Kind didn’t have Tetsutetsu and me do anything in the field.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Both of them squeaked and windmilled their arms when Fat Gum abruptly stopped ahead of them, sending them crashing into his back.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Patrol is simple,” the pro hero said, looking both of them over with a knowing smile. “We are here for both moral support-” and here he gestured to the crowds of people around them, chattering easily and calmly. “And we are here to put a stop to any activities that may be considered criminal. Easy enough to understand?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ah, yes.” Momo licked her lips, gazing up at Fat Gum. “What sort of situations should we be prepared for?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A gentle hand came down to rest on Momo’s shoulder.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Don’t worry Creati.” Fat Gum’s grin crinkled his eyes. “This is routine. You’ll be able to handle anything, no problem.” He tilted his head. “ Don’t doubt yourself.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Momo’s smile was larger this time.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The next second, screams began to become audible in the distance.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The group of heroes all instantly looked up, attention caught.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Let’s move!” Fat Gum charged forwards instantly, his massive form easily cutting a path through the evening crowds.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eijirou grinned. Hell yeah!</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The student heroes bolted after their mentor.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A group of men in various ill-fitting suits were sprinting through the crowds from the other direction. One of them shouted something that was drowned out in the confusion, but then Fat Gum was on the scene.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The pro grabbed the entire group in his arms, sliding through and effectively stopping them in their tracks.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A single man slithered out of his grasp, his form shrinking and elongating to avoid the hero.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“This isn’t worth a turf war!” the man all but wailed, whipping his ribbon-like body past bystanders and out of Fat Gum’s reach. “I’m done! I’m done with the Precepts!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Tamaki darted forwards in a blur of motion. Long, dull red tentacles lashed around the fleeing villain and whipped him into the ground. The man squawked.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What the hell is t-this- creepy octopus?!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s rude,” came the glum whisper. The teen hero’s shoulders slumped, shadowing most of his face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Oh no, that wouldn’t do.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ignore him, Suneater!” Eijirou called out, cupping his hands around his mouth for more volume. “You’ve got this!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Tamaki blinked at him, surprised, but his shoulders went back after a moment in new determination. He yanked the villain towards him and struck out with his other hand in the same motion.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There was a crunching sound as the villain crumpled to the ground, the tentacles slowly unwrapping from him. Tamaki flexed his fingers, dismissing the hardened clam shell from his hand.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah!” Eijirou cheered, fist-pumping. The crowd seemed to agree with him, cheers and whoops and calls of admiration echoing from the watching civilians around them. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Momo offered a hand to Tamaki, smiling softly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That was really impressive, Suneater,” she said, helping him to his feet from where he’d been kneeling. “You have an incredible understanding of your quirk.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The older student hid his flustered blush in his scarf and hood, embarrassed by the attention. Momo patted him on the shoulder in understanding and crouched down beside the felled villain to restrain him with some newly-created handcuffs.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He really is on par with most pros at this point,” Fat Gum cheerfully called over. He was making sure the rest of the criminals were taken down for the moment. “If only he could get his confidence up. He’d be unstoppable!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His student mumbled something and pulled his hood down over his eyes before-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There was a loud </span>
  <em>
    <span>crack</span>
  </em>
  <span> of a gunshot, and Tamaki doubled over, falling to his knees.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Time seemed to slow down.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Suneater!” Fat Gum bellowed, charging over to get to his fallen student.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eijirou saw a flash out of the corner of his eye and, reacting purely on instinct, threw himself over his classmates. They all tumbled to the ground, pulling a surprised gasp from Momo as he activated his quirk. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>More gunshots rang out, and he gritted his teeth as he dimly felt two sparks along his hardened armor, thankfully shielding both of his classmates where they lay tangled together.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The crowd was screaming and rushing behind him, so Eijirou picked up his head and uncurled a bit from his protective grasp of his friends, glancing down to make sure they both were alright. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m ok,” Momo said hurriedly, beating him to the question. She pushed herself up into a seated position, shaking Tamaki beside her with a gentle hand. “Suneater?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The other student’s breath was coming in short gasps, shakily clutching his side, and he looked up at the both of them at her prompting.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span> There… there was no blood.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But Tamaki’s eyes were wide, not in anxiety as Eijirou had come to recognize, but in genuine fear.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I can’t activate my quirk,” he whispered, and Eijirou felt a cold chill run down his spine.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That chill burned into a surge of anger shortly after and he snapped his gaze up, searching for the shooter. The crowd was running, panicked shouting echoing out all around them in the confusion.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>In the middle of that, holding a gun in his shaking hands, stood a man with silver white hair and a panicked look on his face. The instant Eijirou’s eyes met his, he shoved the gun back into his jacket pocket, spinning and bolting away from the scene.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Get back here!” he shouted, scrambling to his feet and chasing after the fleeing criminal.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Red Riot!” he heard Momo call out from behind him. “Be careful!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eijirou ran on.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The pounding of the pavement underneath his boots was drowned out by the thundering of blood in his ears and his own harsh breathing. The criminal took a left, then a right, skidding sideways into a wall before continuing to sprint down another alleyway, mingled sobs and labored breathing audible from the distance Eijirou was steadily closing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Stop chasing me!” the criminal shrieked at him, catching another glimpse when they both turned yet another corner.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Then don’t run away!” Eijirou shouted back, more than a little miffed. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The two of them cut through a crowd, bolting down yet another alley.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span> The criminal stopped in the alleyway, chest heaving, cut off by a dead end. Eijirou charged for him, trying not to run into any civilians that were standing around watching the chase with interest.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Small blades jutted out of the criminal’s left arm.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A glint of metallic silver flashed as the man spun, aiming a desperate and sloppy strike at him. Eijirou ducked, letting the blades scrape harmlessly along his shoulder and surged back up, driving a clenched and hardened fist up under the criminal’s jaw.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The guy went down like a load of bricks.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s not </span>
  <em>
    <span>fair,”</span>
  </em>
  <span> the criminal gargled pathetically into the concrete his face was mashed against. “I jus’ wanted to be strong. Like my buddies.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eijirou felt a familiar tug at his heart at those words.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“H-hey, come on, man.” Eijirou leaned over him, hesitant. “It’s not </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> bad. I get it, wanting to be stronger. But this isn’t the way, you know?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The man smacked his offered hand away, glaring at him with watery red eyes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What the fuck would </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> know about any of this,” he hissed, yanking something long and cylindrical out of his coat. He jabbed it into his neck with barely a wince. “You’re just some shitty hero </span>
  <em>
    <span>wannabe.”</span>
  </em>
  
</p>
<p>
  <span>And then the man shrieked and shuddered, driving a plunger down and dropping the makeshift syringe from twitching fingers shortly after.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eijirou yanked his hand back, eyes widening as the man </span>
  <em>
    <span>screamed,</span>
  </em>
  <span> throwing his head back with a sickening </span>
  <em>
    <span>crack</span>
  </em>
  <span>. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Red Riot!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Momo had arrived on the scene, ushering the scared civilians away as quickly as she could. She took in the situation in front of him in a swift glance, pulling a staff from her side to ready up for a new conflict.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He took something!” Eijirou shouted, starting to back up. “We need to get these people out of here!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The villain (because he’d graduated from criminal to villain with this move, </span>
  <em>
    <span>geez</span>
  </em>
  <span>) shrieked as more blades jutted from his skin. Longer, jagged, much more dangerous before, and accompanied by a wheezing cackle that was horrifying and disconcerting in equal parts.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eijirou threw an anxious glance over his shoulder. There were still people in the alleyway.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Everyone get down!” he heard his classmate yell, and he whipped around to face the villain again, getting his hardened arms up just in time to block a barrage of sharpened metal that shot out at odd angles, tearing gashes into pavement and walls alike.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eijirou grunted, planting his feet to stop himself from getting pushed back by the villain’s suddenly super-charged quirk. A few screams rang out behind him, but he could only listen with his heart in his throat and hope that Momo was getting the people out of the way.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The crazed laughing started up again.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“I’ll kill everyone here.”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Teeth were bared under a vicious sneer, whited out eyes staring blankly at Eijirou. </span>
  <em>
    <span>“That’ll teach you.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>More blades tried to shove past him, but he widened his stance, refusing to budge.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Watch your eyes!” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eijirou didn’t question it. He dropped to one knee, burying his face in his elbow and hearing the soft </span>
  <em>
    <span>fwoosh</span>
  </em>
  <span> of one of Momo’s flash grenades go off barely a second later.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Rewarded with a strangled yelp and a distinct lack of new blades from the villain, Eijirou blinked the brief fuzz from his eyes and searched for his classmate. She was running towards him, the last of the civilians rounding the corner, finally away from the fight.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He looked forward. The villain was recovering, rubbing his eyes and starting to rip through his shirt as a massive surge of his blades centered on his midsection began to shoot out.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He looked back. Momo, eyes wide, hand outstretched.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He dove for his classmate just as a veritable </span>
  <em>
    <span>storm</span>
  </em>
  <span> of blades erupted into the air surrounding them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eijirou wrapped his arms around her, hunkered down, and </span>
  <em>
    <span>breathed.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He had practiced this. He focused, pushing his quirk to every single inch of skin.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was a strange sort of dissociation when he Hardened his entire body. His senses faded into a foggy background; taste, smell, feeling, all pushed away. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Unbreakable.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He thought the villain might be monologuing behind them, but honestly, with all the scraping and pinging of metal against his Hardening, he couldn’t hear a thing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He didn’t know if this would last. He didn’t know if </span>
  <em>
    <span>he</span>
  </em>
  <span> would last. Unbreakable was a new move he’d tried out only a few times before, and it had a time limit. How long had it been so far? Ten, twenty seconds? More?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Red Riot.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His gaze focused, meeting Momo’s. He knew he must look monstrous right now, all jagged edges and rocky texture, but she was calm and steady, tucked in underneath him as she was.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I have a plan,” she said, projecting a bit more because of the noise. “But I need you to hold.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>I have to hold.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He jerkily nodded, feeling his body crunch and crack and split under his Unbreakable.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I need you to hold it for ten more seconds, ok?” Momo stared into his face, icily determined even as sparks and deadly steel flew around her, kept mere centimeters away from her by Eijirou’s hardened body as he withstood the onslaught. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He gritted his teeth.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>I won’t break.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I trust you, Red Riot.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>I am unbreakable.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Three seconds.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>I will keep them safe. </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“One.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Electricity flashed through the air.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There was a hoarse scream from behind them as the metal blades surrounded Eijirou lit up with an entirely different type of sparks.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Now! </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He twisted and </span>
  <em>
    <span>smashed</span>
  </em>
  <span> his arms through steel.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The blade villain fell back as his weapons shattered into thousands of shards all around him, mouth garishly agape to show a blackened tongue and the whites of his eyes as they rolled back. Eijirou charged him, a harsh battle cry of his own ripping from deep inside the cracking of his chest.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>One fierce punch directly into the solar plexus, and it was all over. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The villain was still.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Panting, Eijirou turned back to his classmate as he felt his Unbreakable fade away with the ache of overworked muscles and the faintest wisp of steam.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Momo stood there, a massive, still-sparking taser in her hand and a steely look in her eye.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eijirou was suddenly very glad that she was his classmate.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Momo blew out a slightly shaky breath as the two of them came down from the focused high they’d taken on for the battle. She set her industrial taser carefully on the ground, stripping herself of the rubber gloves she’d created to protect herself and immediately rushed over to him, throwing her arms around him in a grateful hug.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That was-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You were-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eijirou chuckled as they both attempted to talk over each other, sparing a cursory glance for the prone villain to make sure he really was unconscious before brushing away some of the shattered bits from his destroyed mouth guard.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You were awesome, Creati! That was like, super manly.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So were you,” she returned, eyes shining. “I couldn’t have pulled that off without you shielding me and all the civilians still in the alley.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eijirou pulled back a little, grinning wide, heart blooming a bit at her words.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The grin vanished as a new series of screams echoed out.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They both shot each other a wide-eyed frantic look.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Go!” Momo said hurriedly, yanking another pair of handcuffs out of her left arm. “I’ll be right behind you!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As his classmate hastily knelt to deal with the unconscious villain, Eijirou sprinted for the commotion, reaching the corner of the alleyway that led back to the main road in a short time.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He skidded around it, his pulse pounding. He thought they’d taken down the only dangerous person here, other than the ones Fat Gum had caught. Then what was-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“May I have your </span>
  <em>
    <span>attention,</span>
  </em>
  <span> if you please!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>In the center of a terrified crowd, a tall man stood. Tattered clothing, ashen and smoking from the faintest wisps of flame that still flickered over his black jacket, lighting up bronze. He had one of his hands on a lamppost; the metal glowing dull red and orange and slowly melting in thick molten rivulets, dragged down by gravity. As shows of intimidation went, it was a fairly effective one.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span> Eijirou glanced down at the crumpled mess at the villain’s feet and bit his tongue as he recognized what probably used to be one of those criminals that had fled earlier.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Excellent…” The villain bared his teeth at the stock-still civilians that had backed away. “I suggest everyone associated with </span>
  <em>
    <span>this</span>
  </em>
  <span> gentleman-” he carelessly nudged smoldering fabric with one foot. “Listen </span>
  <em>
    <span>carefully.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eijirou gritted his teeth. Fat Gum wasn’t here. Neither was Suneater.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He had to do something.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He started inching his way closer.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Working with the 8 Precepts is going to become a hazardous job very quickly. I </span>
  <em>
    <span>suggest</span>
  </em>
  <span>-” the villain spread his arms wide, glee flickering in sulfurous eyes. “That you find </span>
  <em>
    <span>elsewhere</span>
  </em>
  <span> to make a living. The League of Villains is not as </span>
  <em>
    <span>merciful</span>
  </em>
  <span> as the heroes in this country.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He swung to address the shocked crowd, looking every inch the mad super villain of films and nightmares.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“We</span>
  </em>
  <span> are-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He was cut off by a spray of white foam in his face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eijirou, who had sidled up as close as he dared to the villain, whipped his head around and gaped at his classmate.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Momo, though pale, re-aimed her extinguisher at the villain.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The villain spat out a mouthful of foam, wiping it out of his eyes as best he could with his free hand. The flames that had been carelessly eating away at his clothing sputtered out.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Did you just spray me with a fire extinguisher?” he demanded, sounded both baffled and insulted.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That was when Eijirou decked him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The feeling of his hardened fist sliding through slimy matter panicked him at first; but when he reeled back his arm, he realized that it was covered in a familiar, waxy brown substance. He hadn’t accidentally killed the man. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eijirou’s heart skipped a beat upon remembering a terrible, smoky night in the woods, losing one of his closest friends, and watching his teacher curb-stomp another figure just like this into liquid.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ffffucking bbbbr-” the villain gurgled as his form melted and collapsed into so much goo, spreading out across the concrete.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Momo and Eijirou stared at the ground as the remains of the copy slowly dissolved. Dimly, despite the confusion from the shocked crowd, he could see Fat Gum pushing his way through to get to them, Tamaki on his feet once more and following in his wake.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eijirou reached out blindly for Momo, hearing a sharp </span>
  <em>
    <span>clank</span>
  </em>
  <span> as she dropped her fire extinguisher and grabbed his hand, squeezing tightly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hooo boy.” Eijirou let out a shaky laugh. “Aizawa-sensei is going to </span>
  <em>
    <span>kill</span>
  </em>
  <span> us.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0019"><h2>19. Can't Stop the Feelings</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>oh btw, I'm over on tumblr @iliveonmylaptop if ya wanna say hi or scream to me about my writing or something like that lol</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>It was a good thing they weren't too far away from UA, because Hei Bai wouldn’t leave Eri and Master Aizawa was suspicious about spirit-walking, meaning they mostly walked back to the main campus.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Well, Shinsou and Master Aizawa walked. Aang joined Eri on top of Hei Bai to give her something else to hold on to and to take the opportunity to enjoy the proximity of someone from his world for a while.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eri looked a little calmer with the blanket wrapped around her, curiously peeking around at the darkened city as they moved through it. Sansa had also found a shirt for Eri to wear, in place of the raggedy dress they’d found her in. It was more of a dress on her anyways, falling past her knees in a dark navy, contrasting even more starkly with the off-white bandages covering her limbs.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Their initial patrol hadn’t taken them too far from UA anyways, so it didn’t take that long before they found themselves back at the familiar, distinctive gates of the school.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What now?” Aang asked, leaning sideways to catch a glimpse of his other companions. Eri shrunk back into her blanket until only her eyes and tiny horn peeked out.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We’re all going to get checked out by Recovery Girl,” Master Aizawa said as they made their way up the main walkway. “Yes, all of us,” he quickly added on, giving Shinsou a pointed glare. The teen clicked his mouth shut and looked away, pretending that he hadn’t been about to say something.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Though Aang had heard tales of the fearsome healer known as Recovery Girl from several of his new friends, he had yet to actually meet her in person.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>(Did Midoriya </span>
  <em>
    <span>really</span>
  </em>
  <span> break his bones on that regular of a basis?!)</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang dismounted with his usual jump once the main building of campus was in sight. He touched down lightly on the grass, still dry even with the promise of morning dew in the air.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It had been an… odd night.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Behind him, Master Aizawa had lifted Eri up to help her off of the spirit’s high back. He gently set her down on the grass, a familiar soft look in his eyes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang wondered how people didn’t see it, sometimes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hei Bai shook himself once everyone was off his back, fur fluffing up to an unnatural amount before settling back down.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shinsou had already set off for the door, clearly familiar with the way. Aizawa inclined his head in that direction and followed, hands in his pockets.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A small hand pulled on Aang’s sash, prompting him to pause and look down. Eri stared up at him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang crouched down to her level, keeping his motions slow and easy to read.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’ll be alright,” he said softly. “Hei Bai will be here when we get out. He’s not going anywhere.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The spirit made a grumbling noise of affirmation and plonked down on the grass, spreading his front paws out in front of him. Eri bit her lip, glancing back at Hei Bai before turning back to Aang.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ok,” she whispered. Hesitantly, she reached out her hand. Aang took it, letting her squeeze as tight as she needed to, and carefully stood back up.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Master Aizawa and Shinsou had paused on the steps, waiting for them. The two stragglers caught up with them after a moment.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>At this time of night, many of the lights that normally would be on for the evening had either been dimmed or turned off completely. Their footsteps echoed in the empty hallways. Eventually, Master Aizawa led them to an office that Aang hadn’t been to before, one that still had a light on in the window.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aizawa knocked softly on the door with the back of his knuckles. It opened almost immediately, and he was met with a glare from a very short, elderly woman in a white coat.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It doesn’t count as a morning visit if the sun isn’t up yet,” the woman who could only be Recovery Girl snapped.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I </span>
  <em>
    <span>did</span>
  </em>
  <span> apologize in advance.” Master Aizawa shifted to reveal the three of them standing behind him in the hall. “May we come in?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She pursed her lips, but nodded and stepped aside, letting the group file in behind her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shinsou and Aang both took to the spare chairs in the room, while Master Aizawa picked Eri up and gently set her on the open, clean bed that was over by the counter after asking for permission. Recovery Girl came back over to them all after a moment.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“This is Eri,” Aizawa introduced, lightly resting a quick hand on her shoulder. “Eri, this is Recovery Girl. She’s the school doctor.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hello, young lady.” The healer’s smile was soft and warm, an immediate difference from the scowl she’d given Aizawa. “I’m Recovery Girl. Is it alright if I give you a bit of a check-up?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eri nodded, silent.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Good, thank you. Does anything hurt?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eri bit her lip before pointing to the bandages on her arms.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Today was a bad day,” she said solemnly. “Boss put me back together twice.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang felt a tinge of alarm at those words, and judging by the faces of his companions he wasn’t the only one, though Recovery Girl and Master Aizawa hid it well.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well, let’s take a look, then,” Recovery Girl said, soothing. Eri sat still as the healer gently unwrapped the bandages on her arms, unnaturally so for a kid her age. Recovery Girl’s eyes tightened ever so slightly over what she found.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well, I have some ointment that should make these feel better.” She patted Eri’s knee before moving over to a cabinet and pulling a small tube of something from it. Upon returning, she unscrewed it and started the process of smearing a clear gel over the girl’s arms.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“There,” she said once she was done. “That should take some of the pain away, and stop any infections from setting in.” She smiled at Eri, though the girl didn’t return it. “You should feel better tomorrow. Until then-” Recovery Girl offered her a small bag filled with brightly-colored candy. “Have some gummies. They’ll help too.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eri stared at the bag in blank confusion.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ah, here.” Aang gave Recovery Girl a questioning </span>
  <em>
    <span>may I?</span>
  </em>
  <span> look, to which she nodded. Aang reached over to grab one of the small candies and popped it into his mouth, smiling at Eri. “Tastes good to me!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It did, actually. Almost like honey. He wondered what they were made of.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was a little bittersweet the amount of trust Eri apparently had in him already, because she carefully took a candy for herself and ate it, looking to him for approval. He offered her another smile, pushing away the tug at his heartstrings.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Recovery Girl watched the interaction with an uncomfortable amount of insight in her gaze. She didn’t comment on it, simply going through the rest of the check up for Eri. A few other medical instruments made their appearance, quickly used and discarded when it became clear that their presence was disturbing to the young girl.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The healer kept to more basic checks after Eri made a small, frightened noise at the sight of the latest tool. She took her pulse by hand, listened to her heartbeat, and generally took in the scope of the injuries she seemed to have all over her body, it seemed. Recovery Girl finished by bandaging the vivid red cuts on her arms and legs with dun colored patches, smaller and less bulky than the fabric strips that had served that purpose before.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>When Recovery Girl finished to her satisfaction, she nodded to Eri with a gentle smile and thanked her for her cooperation. Eri simply blinked in return and resumed eating the candies she’d been given.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Alright.” The healer finally turned to address the group at large. “Anyone else injured?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Shinsou,” Master Aizawa said immediately.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shinsou just sighed and didn’t argue. The healer looked like she wanted to roll her eyes but was too dignified for that. So instead, she rapped him on the knee with her cane.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Where?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ribs.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Then shirt up, sonny.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>If Shinsou had any less control over his face he might have looked mortified. As it was, he looked vaguely uncomfortable as he complied, lifting the edge of the dark grey shirt he wore under his hero costume.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Recovery Girl pressed lightly over his ribs, prompting a slight wince from him. The pale skin was mottled purple to green to yellow, looking like a week old bruise thanks to the waterbending Aang had done.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’ve seen far worse,” the healer said. “Nothing was displaced and it looks like most of the swelling has been taken down already.” She leaned forwards and pecked a quick kiss on Shinsou’s brow. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang, who had tilted his head in confusion at that action, widened his eyes as the discoloration faded with barely more than a sparkle. Shinsou immediately heaved a small breath, looking much more comfortable.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Well, in Shinsou terms. He and Mai would get along great, honestly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Recovery Girl turned and pinned Aang with a sharp look that had him reflexively sitting up straight. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m assuming you are the one who healed this?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Uh, yes ma’am, that was me.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And now Master Aizawa was the one giving the healer a funny look. She just snorted at him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, don’t give me that look, Aizawa. Nedzu keeps me informed. Better than anyone else, I’d think.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Master Aizawa looked almost offended.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And you-” she swung back around to look Aang up and down with an appraising eye. “Do you have any injuries?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang shook his head.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I try my best to stay uninjured,” he said, laughing lightly. Recovery Girl stared at him before gently patting his hand.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So Aizawa, any chance you could get him to infect your class with some of that common sense? If Midoriya ends up in my office again, I’m going to start giving him a rewards card.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’ll see what I can do,” Master Aizawa returned, just as dryly. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Then if no one else is in danger, I’d like to be able to go to sleep, if you don’t mind.” Recovery Girl squinted up at the teacher. “Some of us have actual sleep schedules, you know.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang knew that Master Aizawa must respect Recovery Girl because he didn’t look anything more than slightly disgruntled at her pointed words.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They were quickly shooed (ordered) out of her office after some rather hasty goodbyes and retraced the short walk back outside.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hei Bai was delighted to see them again. Maybe his companions couldn’t tell the difference between his pleased growl and his “I’m about to rend you limb from limb” growl, but Aang thought that he was just about proficient in spirit-speak by now. He was willing to follow them, now that “small cub” and “purple cub” had been taken care of. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And the night was still silent as they trooped back to Heights Alliance, Eri clinging onto Shinsou this time, to the other teen’s complete confusion and embarrassed gratification. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Are you leaving?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It had been a bit since Eri had spoken, so it took all of them off-guard to hear her breathy voice. She was looking at the teacher when she said this, still holding on to Shinsou’s hand.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No. We’re going to stay here for the night,” Master Aizawa said quietly. Almost gentle. “Hei Bai is staying here too.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You’re not going to give me back to Boss?” Eri whispered, barely audible. Aizawa frowned ever so slightly, crouching down so he could be at eye level with her.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Do you want us to?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No!” Eri said, with the strongest surge of emotion they’d seen in a while. “I don’t want to go back.” Her red eyes were glimmering in the moonlight, wide and fearful. “Please don’t take me back.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Something remarkably like pain flashed through Master Aizawa’s dark eyes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We won’t.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eri didn’t cry, but she did shake, desperately reaching forward for the teacher. He pressed a gentle hand to her back and let her cling to him, small fingers clutching tight into the black fabric of his jumpsuit.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Out of the corner of his eye, Aang saw Shinsou’s expression draw tight and turn away, looking like he may be biting his tongue.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was quiet for a minute.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Can Aang stay with me and Hei Bai?” Eri’s nebulous voice finally asked, as though she was afraid to be heard. Master Aizawa’s brow furrowed, and he looked to Aang in a silent question.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We can sleep out here,” Aang offered, gesturing to the lawn. “It’s pretty warm and there’s no rain, plus we’ll have Hei Bai with us the whole time.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ah.” Master Aizawa glanced around the entire area, clearly thinking that over. He sighed after a minute, apparently not finding a better option. “Fine. Do your best to stay out of sight come morning.” He pinched the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes. “I’ll come up with something to tell the other students.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I could just threaten them when they come down for breakfast,” Shinsou offered.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Do not manipulate your classmates.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Just an idea.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Master Aizawa carefully stood up, letting Eri disengage from him if she wanted. She didn’t, and clung onto his pant leg until Aang offered her his hand again.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Go ahead and set up if that’s what you’ll be doing for the night,” the teacher said, directing his gaze back to Aang. “You know where I’ll be. I’ll check in every so often.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hei Bai seemed to take that as an invitation, because the large spirit promptly trotted over to the nearest grassy area, shadowed by the bushes surrounding the building, and stamped in a circle a few times before settling down on the grass. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I suppose that works,” Master Aizawa said dryly, as Aang led Eri over to the pleased spirit. Shinsou snickered ever so slightly before making his own way up the dorm’s steps.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hei Bai hummed low in his chest as they came close, letting Eri curl up against his side.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He would protect the cubs, he told Aang in a growl. They would sleep safe with him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m not exactly a cub anymore,” Aang said softly with good humor, crouching down to address this to the spirit directly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hei Bai grumbled in disagreement.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Still a cub, that sound said. Just with too much of the world in him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang bit his lip, not sure how to respond to that. He glanced over his shoulder, where Master Aizawa and Shinsou had paused before the dorm’s front doors, talking in lowered voices.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey, Eri.” Crimson eyes met his own as she pulled the soft grey folds of the blanket around her. “I’m going to go grab another blanket, ok? I’ll be right back,” he promised. “Stay with Hei Bai?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She just barely nodded in assent. He smiled, ruffled her hair lightly, and stood up to make his way over to the doors.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t think I like the sound of this ‘Boss,” he said once he got in range of the other two.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What’s going to happen to her?” Shinsou asked, expression tight and closed off.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t know.” Master Aizawa looked tired, rubbing the back of his neck. “The first option would be foster care. But the circumstances are… less than ideal.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No shit,” Shinsou muttered, bitterness coloring his words.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Given the situation, protective custody may be up for consideration,” the teacher continued calmly, sparing a quick glance for his student. “But that’s something we’ll have to take up with the police force and social services. Which is not something we can handle tonight,” he finished, his Teacher Voice coming out once again. Master Aizawa looked the pair of them over, slowly unwrapping his scarf from around his shoulders. </span>
  <em>
    <span>“Tonight,</span>
  </em>
  <span> we rest, and prepare for tomorrow. Get some sleep. Both of you.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shinsou gave him a mock salute with two fingers.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You got it, Sensei.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Master Aizawa squinted at him but left it at that, disappearing into the dorms.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The student lowered his hand, a strange flurry of emotions changing his expression as he took a quick glance back at Eri and the spirit.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Are you ok?” Aang asked quietly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shinsou grimaced.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s… it’s nothing. I just-” he paused, glancing away. “Foster homes aren’t exactly great places for kids."</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ah.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>"You think it'll do more harm than good?"</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span> Shinsou crossed his arms, nodded tightly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“They make you carve pieces of yourself away,” he said. “They…” He hissed in irritation, fingers digging into his jacket. “I don’t want her to go through that if she doesn’t have to.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang tilted his head, wondering if the words he wasn’t saying were: </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Like I did.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Or worse:</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Like I am.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ok,” he replied instead, purposefully composed. Some of Shinsou’s guard seemed to drop at his placid response, his shoulders relaxing slightly. “Then we do our best to not have that happen.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A twitch of the lips that may have been a smile ghosted over Shinsou’s face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Right.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang and Shinsou parted ways a few minutes later, Shinsou to go change and then not sleep for several more hours (his words), Aang to get back out to Eri.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He ended up grabbing two blankets from inside. Eri still had the one Shinsou had brought for her earlier, but it was nice to have an extra. The two of them settled in against the spirit’s side easy enough upon his return. It gave Aang a pang of homesickness at the familiarity, sleeping under the sky, warm against the side of his furry friend.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Did you have a home before this?” Aang asked, as Eri curiously poked her fingers through the soft holes in Sero’s big knitted blanket that usually claimed a spot on the common room couch.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eri shook her head.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Home was bad.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang tried not to frown, more than a little sad.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well… we can help you find a new home,” he offered, pushing a smile back onto his face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eri was silent for a bit.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She looked… resigned. An awful look on a kid so young, like she was so used to being afraid, being hurt, time and time again, that it was all she knew.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I know that you’re scared,” Aang said as softly as he could, offering Eri a hand to hold. Cold, too thin fingers shakily threaded through his own. “And that’s ok. I’m scared a lot, too.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They both leaned back against Hei Bai, looking up at the stars that flickered across the night sky. There were less stars in this world, Aang had noticed. And they were hard to see. It made him a bit sad- even the constellations reminded him of how different everything was at the moment.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m pretty far from home, myself,” Aang said, tucking his other hand behind his head. Eri answered him, to his surprise, her voice subdued but understandable.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Is that lonely?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“...sometimes,” he admitted, looking over into her solemn gaze. “But I made lots of new friends, already. Midoriya, Shinsou, Todoroki. Iida and Uraraka and Tsuyu.” He returned to gazing up at the stars, pensive. “And Master Aizawa and Master Yamada.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eri watched him, her brow creased. She looked… nervous wasn’t the right word for it. On guard?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You met Master Aizawa tonight,” he said, trying to figure out what got her so concerned. “Master Yamada is his husband. They live together. They have cats,” he also added, figuring that that was a good thing to share.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eri dipped her chin, hiding most of her face with her long hair. She mumbled something, too faintly for him to make out. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He made a questioning hum in response, indicating that he hadn’t understood. So she repeated herself, clearer this time.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Grown-ups hurt.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang swallowed, an old pain he kept close to his heart aching in a way it hadn’t in a while.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Some grown-ups do,” he agreed quietly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eri cocked her head at him, birdlike, with far too much knowledge in her eyes. She scrutinized the hand she was holding, running a feather-light touch over his calluses; the ones spanning his palm from wielding his staff, the finer ones on the edges of his thumbs and fingers from the drop spindle, broad, harsh ones protecting his knuckles after years of bending.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Then she ghosted over the scars. Small scuffs on his fingers from the wear and tear of his life. The long, clean slice over the side of his arm, from when the Yuyan archers had pinned him down in that marsh and one arrow had skimmed a little too close. The darkened impression of rope pulled tight over his wrists, though he couldn’t tell you which time they were from. Bold licks of burn scars all up his forearms that never quite faded, a trophy from his final, desperate battle with Ozai. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You have marks like me,” Eri said simply, unaware of how her words hit like an earthbending kick to his chest, stealing the air from his lungs. She looked up at him and extended her own arm, showing the new bandages that marched with terrible precision along the length of it. “Did your grown-ups hurt you too?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang had to remind himself to breathe, an action that he would have found laughable before the war, but one he now found himself falling back on far too often.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“They… they weren’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>my</span>
  </em>
  <span> grown-ups,” he finally managed to say.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eri waited for him to explain, silently watching him struggle with his words. Aang closed his eyes for a moment, recentering himself.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You get to decide who your grown-ups are, Eri,” he said, once he opened them again. “My marks-” his words faltered before he forged ahead, wanting to let her know what he was feeling. “My marks are from </span>
  <em>
    <span>bad</span>
  </em>
  <span> grown-ups. And so are yours.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Bad grown-ups,” she repeated, sounding confused. He nodded.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Your grown-ups should never hurt you. They’re supposed to protect you, and care about you, and keep you safe.” He took her hands in his, gently squeezing them. “You can talk to them, and trust them. But only you can say who your grown-ups are.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eri looked down at both of their hands clasped together and thought that over. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Is Master Aizawa a good grown-up?” she asked, peering back up into Aang’s eyes as he blinked in surprise. “Is he your grown-up?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The first words on his tongue were a denial, an instinctive reaction he’d built up years ago. But then he bit his lip, and thought again.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Thought of nightmares and old fears, of calm conversations and fond exasperation, and… help.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Oh.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Oh. </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah,” he said quietly, something like wonder in his voice. “Yeah, I think he is.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eri seemed satisfied with that answer, despite the amount of bewilderment it had instilled in him. She snuggled back against Hei Bai, the black and white fur mingling with her own strands of hair. Her lashes fluttered slowly, clearly tired.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Will you share him with me?” she asked, a yawn following a second afterwards.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang was shocked into a quiet laugh at the innocent question, still reeling a bit.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m sure he wouldn’t mind,” he chuckled, leaning back against Hei Bai himself.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eri yawned again, her eyes closing. Aang smiled.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was a quiet and peaceful night.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Silent and unseen, Aizawa slipped away from the window he'd been listening at, unsure of what to do with these new emotions sitting inside his chest.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0020"><h2>20. Things Left Unsaid and Some That Aren't</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>so this chapter was a bitch to write for no apparent reason! ah well we can't all be winners, thanks shinsou</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>So the good news was that he’d been able to sleep for a while.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The bad news was, now Aang had to talk to a lot more people than he’d been planning on talking to that day. Thanks, Master Aizawa.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But he understood. A lot of people in this world were dealing with repercussions because of </span>
  <em>
    <span>him.</span>
  </em>
  <span> They deserved to know what was going on. </span>
  <em>
    <span>All</span>
  </em>
  <span> of what was going on.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And so, he and Master Aizawa were off to a hero agency run by someone named Sir Nighteye, to share what they’d experienced so far and to plan for the future.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eri and Hei Bai were staying with Shinsou until they got back. It was a day off from school for the class, and so Shinsou had offered to watch over the spirit and his charge, hopefully keeping them fairly low-key for a time.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang ran a hand over his head again.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fuzzy. Prickly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re fidgeting,” Master Aizawa said quietly, startling him out of his footsteps. The agency had been far enough away that the two of them had had to take a train before walking the rest of the way. “What’s wrong?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah…” Aang pulled a face, feeling a little silly. “It’s just- my hair is growing back.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Master Aizawa tilted his head, giving him an appraising look.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We can get you a razor, if you’d like,” he said, still keeping his voice down. “It’s no trouble.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...no, it’s all right. You said I stuck out anyways.” Aang shrugged, avoiding the new look the teacher was now giving him. “It’s been long enough that it’ll start covering my tattoos in a week or so. It happened when-” he faltered and glanced up at Master Aizawa, who was listening patiently. He sighed, lowering his voice as well. “I… I got really injured during the war.” He moved a hand to the small of his back, where his scar still lay, remembering. “Azula hit me with lightning while I was in the Avatar State. If Katara hadn’t had her water from the Spirit Oasis, I would have died. I… I think I actually might have anyways. But she brought me back.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was that look in Master Aizawa’s eyes again, like he couldn’t decide whether to be sad or angry. Aang blinked, thinking about what Eri had said, and felt an odd flutter of warmth somewhere in his chest.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Anyways,” he rubbed the back of his neck, dropping his gaze once more. “I was unconscious for… maybe a month? And so- hair. It made it easier to hide who I was, since we were traveling through the Fire Nation at the time. It should be the same here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright,” was all Master Aizawa said. He opened the door to the Agency building, the pair of them having reached their destination. “So long as it doesn’t bother you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good morning!” a clear voice rang out once they both entered.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A young woman had approached them, clad in a sleek black suit with bold white accents and a clear mask that covered most of her face. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Bubble Girl,” the teacher greeted.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hello, Eraserhead; welcome to the Agency.” The woman smiled warmly at Master Aizawa, her unusually blue skin dappled in the indoor lighting. She turned to Aang then, reflective yellow eyes widening slightly as she took him in. “And you must be Aang! Sir has been really interested in meeting you. You’ve shaken up a lot of things around here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang wrinkled his nose, trying for a smile of his own.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Like, in a good way?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>She laughed gently at that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll show you both up to the conference room, if you don’t mind. Most everyone else is already here.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bubble Girl turned and gestured to the staircase, before making her own way towards them, thick white boots clicking against the smooth tile floor.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She didn’t really answer my question,” Aang said under his breath, trying not to grumble. A light hand touched his shoulder.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’ll be fine,” Master Aizawa said simply. “Relax. I’ll be with you the entire time.” He shrugged, the movement somewhat hidden under his scarf. “They’re already going to believe you. It’s just what we’re planning to do next that’s up in the air.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What do they already know?” Aang asked, as the pair of them followed their guide up the steps.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Tsukauchi and I have shared the basics, but you’ll end up being called upon to explain most of it. Are you alright with that?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“...yeah, I think I can do that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Bubble Girl had led them to a conference room, it appeared. She paused after opening the door and smiled again, gesturing for them to go on in.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The room was already full of people, bright costumes and equipment making a rather stark contrast with the plain, utilitarian interior of the room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sit down over here,” Master Aizawa murmured, indicating a pair of open chairs around the large table taking up most of the space.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ah, just like council meetings with Zuko. He could do this.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang took a steadying breath in an attempt to still fluttering nerves and obliged, sitting in the chair next to the teacher. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>To his slowly rising anxiety, he recognized about half the faces in the room already- because they were his friends and temporary classmates from UA. Mirio and Midoriya were over by the suited man at the head of the table, Nejire, Uraraka, and Asui had accompanied a tall woman with vaguely draconic features, and Kirishima and Momo stood with Tamaki next to an enormous man that easily dwarfed everyone else in the room.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Introductions went around the room, mostly for his benefit, he supposed. The three other heroes were Sir Nighteye, Ryukyu, and Fat Gum, respectively, and then Bubble Girl, who was a sidekick if Aang remembered correctly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ryukyu was… literally a dragon person. Well, not </span>
  <em>
    <span>quite.</span>
  </em>
  <span> But she had those golden, slit-pupiled eyes, and noticeable fangs with elongated canines whenever she spoke, and he caught sight of talons when she gestured.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He wondered if she could firebend. Could dragons firebend here?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Fat Gum was both very tall and very wide. It was fairly impressive.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Master- Sir? Sir Nighteye was kind of scary. When he looked at you, it was like he had already decided he was going to be disappointed about your existence in general.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s nice to meet you,” Aang said politely once they’d all finished, unsure of what else to say.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’ve already been given an… overview of what today’s meeting has been called for.” That was Sir Nighteye, sitting ramrod straight in the chair at the head of the table, a single hand rested on the tabletop. He glanced towards Master Aizawa as he spoke, passing over Aang. “I do hope someone is going to </span>
  <em>
    <span>elaborate.</span>
  </em>
  <span>” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Here went nothing. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang cleared his throat, and just like that, everyone was looking at him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Oh boy.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My name is Aang. And I… I’m not from this world.” He dipped his chin, fighting the urge to hide his expression. “In my world, we don’t have quirks. We don’t have the technology that you have. But we do have spirits. And that’s what this problem is about.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The room was quiet as Aang prepared his thoughts, still feeling a little lightheaded from nerves. But Master Aizawa was here with him, and the rest of the people were just… waiting. Listening.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And so Aang told them his story. He kept a few things close to his chest, but for the most part, he just took a deep breath and… spoke.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He spoke of his world and the role he played in it as the Avatar. He spoke of the Spirit World and the people who lived in it, crossing over between realms occasionally. About their World Spirit’s ask for help and his subsequent, sudden appearance here, in this world. And what he’d achieved here so far; sending spirits home, finding Hei Bai, and the discovery of the Spirit Nomu the League was most likely creating.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And when he was done, and the room was filled with quiet murmurs and discussion, he searched the faces of everyone there for disbelief, for disgust, or anger, anything that could be directed at him. And found… none.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>This world was </span>
  <em>
    <span>weird.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>But Aang was now the center of a </span>
  <em>
    <span>lot</span>
  </em>
  <span> of attention and it was an awkward place to be. Not that he wasn’t, you know, </span>
  <em>
    <span>used</span>
  </em>
  <span> to it. He’d had to deal with a lot of people who wanted to talk to the Avatar and be reassured that yes, he was there for them, and yes, he’d fix everything for them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Even when he couldn’t.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The students were mostly staring at him at this point, especially the ones he’d already known from class 1-A. He kept his gaze facing forwards, fighting to keep his face calm and mostly blank.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>It’s like the kids in the Temple all over again,</span>
  </em>
  <span> a bitter part of him whispered. </span>
  <em>
    <span>These ones will leave you too.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>He shook his head slightly, as though he could physically wash away his negative thoughts.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Stop it,</span>
  </em>
  <span> he chided his inner voice irritably. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Live in the here and now. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Not for the first time, he was grateful for the calm, grounding presence of Master Aizawa at his side.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll be entirely honest.” Sir Nighteye finally spoke up once again, silencing the ambient chatter in the room and addressing Aang fully for the first time. The man steepled his fingers, unsettling green eyes fixated directly on him. “If you didn’t have both Eraserhead and Detective Tsukauchi, who is known for having a truth-discerning quirk corroborating your story, I would have dismissed you out of hand.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang tried not to squint at the hero, vaguely uncomfortable with the implication. Sir Nighteye studied him, intense and rather foreboding.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang did </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> like that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“But-” The hero broke the rather tense standoff. “As it stands, this new information opens up some interesting possibilities and offers… some insight into intelligence this agency has already gathered in regards to both the 8 Precepts and the League of Villains.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And it goes without saying that everything discussed here is classified.” That was Master Aizawa, giving the students in the room a firm look. “Even though you only have provisional licenses, we are expecting all of you to maintain complete professionalism in this matter.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Midoriya, who had already known about spirits, simply nodded. The rest of the students followed suit a moment later, though some odd looks were still getting thrown in Aang’s direction.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He did his best to avoid them.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So General Old Iron is providing the League with Spirit Nomu.” Ryukyu’s voice was deep and raspy, with sharply enunciated consonants. “That would explain why they’re now confident enough to declare war on the Precepts. Is it simply a power play, or are they after something specific?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think we may have found an answer to that,” Fat Gum spoke up. “The Precepts are dealing not only in Trigger, albeit a less powerful version of the American formula, but also in a drug that temporarily… erases quirks.” The hero rested a hand on Tamaki’s shoulder, who ducked his head. “Tamaki was shot with one such bullet. We’re lucky- it appears to wear off in about a day or so.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“We’re grateful that you recovered,” Ryukyu said to the student, drumming her talons on the table thoughtfully. “Did you manage to retrieve the weapon after his treatment?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yes, and we collected two more bullets from the initial scene.” Fat Gum nodded to his other student. “They </span>
  <em>
    <span>were </span>
  </em>
  <span>partially destroyed on impact with Kirishima’s Hardening-” Kirishima waved a bit sheepishly here. “-but there was enough left of them to run through the lab. We also retrieved the gun used.” He held up the item in question, contained in a clear blag, before setting it on the table. “It’s been modified to only fire these bullets. Fairly standard. But the bullets are what's most interesting.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They’ve been adapted to administer the drug on contact.” Sir Nighteye got to his feet, his serious gaze raking the room. “A drug we have no previous record of. And considering that it appears to be able to erase quirks for a temporary period of time, that is… </span>
  <em>
    <span>concerning.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Eraserhead.” The room looked to Master Aizawa as Fat Gum spoke. “Do you have any insights into this? After all, your quirk is quite similar to this.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not running around Erasing heroes’ quirks and giving tips to drug dealers if that’s what you’re asking,” Master Aizawa said, as dry as the Si Wong Desert. “Do we at least know what the drug is made out of?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Among other things-” Sir Nighteye swiped to a new screen on his notes. “Human biological material has been found in the chemical makeup of the drug. Consistent in every instance recorded so far.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Biological material,” Aizawa repeated, eyes sharpening. “They’re using someone’s DNA to fabricate these bullets?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That is what we’re assuming.” The hero focused his gaze on the teacher, who had grown tense in just the last few seconds. “That seems to be important information to you. Care to share your findings?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Master Aizawa’s lips thinned in an almost invisible grimace.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“On patrol last night, one of the more powerful spirits brought my group a young girl. Maybe six years old.” He gestured to the length of his arms before crossing them. “She was running from someone she called “Boss” and has multiple injuries and a fear of medical equipment, among other things.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“They were using Eri to make these things?” Aang blurted out, horrified and connecting the dots. Master Aizawa looked grim.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s a good possibility.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Where is this girl now?” Ryukyu asked, as the room erupted into murmurs.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Back at UA. One of my students and Hei Bai, the spirit, are looking after her.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is she capable of speaking about what happened to her?” Sir Nighteye asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“She’s shown signs of abuse and severe trauma.” Master Aizawa was back to being not-quite angry. “If she is willing to talk about her situation, we’ll listen. But we’re not going to force her to relive past traumas before she’s ready.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Then what do you suggest?” the other man challenged. Cool, collected.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Master Aizawa looked around the room, at everyone’s expectant gazes. He glanced briefly to Aang, who was now quiet, and set his jaw.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He turned back to the room and told them what he and Tsukauchi had in mind.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>“You aren’t in trouble, are you?” Shouto asked.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang paused mid stretch.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Probably not. Why?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouto jerked a thumb over his shoulder, pointing to the rather grumpy teacher grading papers on the benches that spanned the gym’s front wall.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sensei seems to be a little grouchier than usual.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah, that’s probably because of me,” Kirishima chimed in, rubbing the back of his neck guiltily. “He muttered something about increased property damage before walking off.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, you’re my friends,” Aang said, amusingly prim. “And I get to decide what bending techniques I want to teach you. And I decided Kirishima should also get to learn. It’s only fair.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, thanks bro!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Well, that was reasoning enough, Shouto supposed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span> He’d been looking to train with Aang like he’d quietly requested earlier and the monk had cleared it with their teacher. Kirishima was… a new addition. Apparently more people knew now? Including the Big Three?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>This must be the worst kept secret Shouto’s ever heard.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Which… may have been a clue, honestly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>So here they were, the three of them. In Gym Gamma, recently repaired thanks to Cementoss.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dragon’s Dance was </span>
  <em>
    <span>way</span>
  </em>
  <span> different when you were actually </span>
  <em>
    <span>using fire.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s ok!” Aang hastily said, dispersing yet another stray fire blast away from himself and Kirishima. “This is all super new for you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouto tried not to grit his teeth in frustration and instead breathed out sharply through his nose, dropping his hands back down to his sides.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Let’s try something different,” Aang offered. He walked through a new kata for all of them to do, slow and easy, with lots of precise punches and angular blocks.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was easier. When he used his fire, it was more difficult again. He could only use half of his body for it, which Aang had said wasn’t a problem, but it </span>
  <em>
    <span>felt</span>
  </em>
  <span> like a problem.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s not just about the fire,” the monk eventually said, seeing the irritation build in Shouto. Kirishima, both bless and curse him, seemed to be fine, taking to the martial arts aspect of the firebending form as easily as the ones they’d learned in class from Aizawa.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s a firebending form,” Shouto pointed out dryly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, but it's not about the </span>
  <em>
    <span>fire.” </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouto just stared blankly at him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s like what I said the first time,” Aang explained, moving slowly through his steps. “And I meant it. Using fire isn’t about the element itself. The fire is the effect, not the cause.” The monk caught Shouto’s eye, pausing. “There isn’t anything inherently good or bad about it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I know that.” Shouto was not complaining. He was </span>
  <em>
    <span>not.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang just hummed, sliding back into his first stance.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And beyond that, bending will be different for you anyways. You have both fire, </span>
  <em>
    <span>and</span>
  </em>
  <span> ice. Waterbenders and firebenders have always clashed in my world, just like airbenders and earthbenders do naturally.” He wrinkled his nose, apparently forgoing the kata in favor of his line of thought. “Toph and I had a rough start and honestly I was pretty sure Katara was going to try to kill Zuko at one point. Though that </span>
  <em>
    <span>may</span>
  </em>
  <span> have been because of, you know, other factors.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is this supposed to be encouraging?” Shouto asked, frowning. The monk laughed, glancing back at him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry, I’m getting to a point, I promise.” Aang clicked his fingers thoughtfully and then turned to Kirishima, who blinked in surprise at being addressed. “Kirishima, when you’re in a fight, how does it feel to use your element?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Huh, I hadn’t really thought about it before.” The redhead Hardened up his left arm, flicking the toughened exterior with his other hand. “Kind of muted. But also… sharp? Like some things are pushed down, but then other things are way more aware.” Kirishima winced, dropping his quirk. “I have no idea if that made any sense.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, it was great, don’t worry!” Aang assured him before turning back to Shouto. “Todoroki, how does it feel to use </span>
  <em>
    <span>your</span>
  </em>
  <span> element?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouto sighed, not really seeing the point, but obliged. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My ice is cold, obviously. I can get dehydrated if I’m not careful and there isn’t enough water in the air for-”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And </span>
  <em>
    <span>that’s</span>
  </em>
  <span> what you’re having trouble with,” Aang interrupted, cutting him off with a raised hand.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouto stared at him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang sighed as well, offering him a wry smile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re splitting yourself down the middle,” he said.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I… I’m </span>
  <em>
    <span>already</span>
  </em>
  <span> split down the middle,” Shouto returned, frustrated, and pointed to his own face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“No, you’re not. You, Todoroki, are </span>
  <em>
    <span>one</span>
  </em>
  <span> element, all on your own.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouto stopped, blinking at the monk, who continued now that he wasn’t being argued with for the moment.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Your power is just an extension of who you are. That’s what bending is, at its core.” Aang held out his right hand, palm up, a small flame flickering to life from it. He gestured gracefully with his other hand, pulling a stream of water from one of Shouto’s previous ice blocks and reshaping it into a delicate ice crystal of his own to hold in his fingers. “I had to learn that as the Avatar. I’ll always be an airbender first, at heart.” His expression flickered to something sad before smoothing out again. “But I’m </span>
  <em>
    <span>every</span>
  </em>
  <span> element. Even the ones that are difficult. Even the ones that have hurt me in the past.” The fire faded and the ice melted to drip through his fingers in clear rivulets as he met Shouto’s eyes once more. “It’s all about balance.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Huh.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>That made… sense, actually.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Something must have cleared on his face, because Aang grinned at him, looking pleased. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What about me?” Kirishima asked, who had been watching the conversation with interest. Aang tilted a hand thoughtfully.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You depend on your element a lot. But at the same time, you don’t believe in your ability to </span>
  <em>
    <span>use</span>
  </em>
  <span> it. Which is stupid!” The monk jabbed a finger in Kirishima’s direction, frowning. “Your element is really cool and you are too! You care so much about people, but you don’t care enough about </span>
  <em>
    <span>yourself.”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Aang marched over and clapped Kirishima on both shoulders so that they were eye to eye. “Well I’m going to show you how </span>
  <em>
    <span>awesome</span>
  </em>
  <span> you are. That’s why I invited you to come train! You’re gonna do </span>
  <em>
    <span>great.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang released a rather stunned Kirishima and patted him on the chest cheerfully before turning back to Shouto.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Since both of you are here, I can show you both the forms for bending, and you guys can go from there. Sound good?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouto nodded, glancing behind him. Kirishima was staring after Aang with wide eyes and the faintest hint of blush coloring his cheeks and yeah, Shouto understood </span>
  <em>
    <span>that. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“So firebenders attack as their own form of defense, but earthbenders just don’t move when they get attacked.” Aang dropped into a strong-looking stance, his bare feet planted firmly on the concrete floor. “It makes them really strong when they’re grounded. Er, no pun intended there.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouto followed suit, glancing back over to Aang to make sure his hands were in the correct position. Kirishima seemed to be having difficulty with the flexibility required to keep his balance.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can’t move rocks,” he pointed out, wobbling slightly. Aang moved to stand next to him, nodding.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“In your case, </span>
  <em>
    <span>you’re</span>
  </em>
  <span> the earth. That gives you an advantage in some ways- you don’t need the space a lot of earthbenders do. And so while I can’t show you the same type of element control that I can show Todoroki, I </span>
  <em>
    <span>can</span>
  </em>
  <span> show you how they </span>
  <em>
    <span>move.” </span>
  </em>
  <span>Aang tapped Kirishima’s foot with his own. “Further back.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kirishima frowned, adjusting his deep stance and trying not to fall over.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Is this how it's taught in your world?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang grinned.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, I could bully you for a few days and throw rocks at you until a life-or-death situation forces you to use this all at once, but that’s not really my teaching style, to be honest.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“That’s how </span>
  <em>
    <span>you</span>
  </em>
  <span> were taught?!”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Toph is one of my nearest and dearest friends. She also just so happens to have far too much fun beating me up.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah,” Kirishima nodded sagely. “The Bakugou of the group.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah, but there’s a lot less screaming from Toph, though.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Who’s the screamer in your group?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sokka, usually. Katara if she gets mad enough. I think it's a family trait.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They stopped for a break after about fifteen more minutes of this, Aizawa’s watchful gaze flashing over the three of them every so often to make sure they weren’t burning the gym to the ground. Kirishima seemed to be slightly distracted for the latter half of it, clearly thinking something over.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>They were just about to start a new form when Kirishima finally spoke up, to Shouto’s relief. The uncertainty had been distracting.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Aang… is electricity one of your elements? You know-” Kirishima made a zig-zag pattern in the air with one finger. “Lightning?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The monk stood still for a second. His shoulders tensed for a brief moment, before he sighed and appeared to deliberately force himself to relax.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Kind of,” he said. “It’s...difficult. Why?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kirishima seemed hesitant, almost sheepish with the look of concern on his face.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Do… do you think you could help Kaminari?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang’s face cleared in understanding.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I </span>
  <em>
    <span>want</span>
  </em>
  <span> to,” he said. He seemed genuine here, a note of worry coloring his own words. “I would need to ask Master Aizawa if I could, first. Because you know,” he waved a hand with a little grimace. “This is supposed to technically be a secret even though that’s going </span>
  <em>
    <span>terribly </span>
  </em>
  <span>so far.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You can use electrification?” Shouto asked curiously.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I can’t create my own lightning,” Aang said, shaking his head. He took a shallow breath. “And honestly, I don’t know if I ever will. It’s something only certain firebenders can do. But what I </span>
  <em>
    <span>can</span>
  </em>
  <span> do, is redirect it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And you don’t, you know.” Kirishima tapped the side of his head. “Get all scrambled upstairs?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The point of redirecting lightning is to </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> get zapped, yes.” Aang tilted his head from side to side to loosen up before settling into yet another stance, one Shouto hadn’t seen before. “You guide it from one point to another. But lightning is… well, its chaos. It doesn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>want</span>
  </em>
  <span> to follow any path. So you have to pull it-” He moved slowly, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, pinpointing a smooth curve across his body with both of his hands curled in a curious, two-fingered position. “Through your ki.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“And that helps?” Kirishima asked, sounding about as lost as Shouto felt.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang repeated the motion in the other direction, quicker this time.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If you do it right.” The monk shrugged, dropping his hands. “It’s a lot of mental focus, but it protects your heart and your head. Lightning redirection is one of the more difficult bending subsets.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouto paused in mentally mapping out the motion Aang had done.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Subsets?” he asked, deciding with resignation that he may as well commit to going down this rabbit hole.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah, yeah.” Aang folded his hands behind him, thinking. “Every type of bending is connected in some way, really. So firebenders can open themselves to lightning, waterbenders can heal, earthbenders can use Tremor Sense, and so on.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Kirishima tilted his head, brow furrowing in confusion.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You didn’t give an example for air.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang shrugged.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Air doesn’t really </span>
  <em>
    <span>have</span>
  </em>
  <span> a subset. My people thought that it was because air is </span>
  <em>
    <span>already </span>
  </em>
  <span>a part of everything else.” He conjured a whirling sphere of air and spun it a few times as an example. “For all the other elements, it's possible to separate the bender from their element. You can imprison a waterbender in a desert, leave an earthbender in an ocean, freeze a firebender or take advantage of an eclipse.” The monk let his wind disperse and tapped his chin, the freed air fluttering the length of his sash. “But it's really hard to stop an airbender from bending. We <em>literally</em> live and breathe our element.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“There’s probably </span>
  <em>
    <span>some</span>
  </em>
  <span> way to stop it,” Shouto couldn’t help but point out, the pessimist in him already thinking up worst case scenarios. “Solitary confinement. Suffocation. Do you get claustrophobic?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Uh… maybe lighten up a bit, bro.” Kirishima winced, patting him on the shoulder. “You’re kinda killing the mood.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Whoops.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Sorry,” Shouto muttered. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang just smiled, though it was a bit strained.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I didn’t say it was impossible,” he said mildly. “Just difficult. If you chained me down and covered my mouth and left me in a dark iron box somewhere, yeah, I’d have a hard time getting out of that.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouto couldn’t help but feel a </span>
  <em>
    <span>little</span>
  </em>
  <span> concerned at how easily he said that.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I really hope that’s not from personal experience.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang just waved him off.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“All different times. Not a big deal.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I feel like that </span>
  <em>
    <span>should</span>
  </em>
  <span> be a big deal,” Shouto heard Kirishima mutter. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang didn’t appear to notice.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0021"><h2>21. Plans Are Set In Motion</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>*waves* Hello! So as much as I joked about taking a break before, I actually did need to take one there for the past couple weeks- I had almost a week straight of recording sessions in the studio, then dealing with University stuff on top of that, and family things, and then the fires. I've been super busy. But I'm refreshed and ready to keep going now! I should be back on my usual upload schedule here now. We're getting into big stuff guys- thanks for waiting!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“I don’t approve of this,” Mirai said immediately, because what sort of plan would it be if he did.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Tsukauchi sighed, looking tired and run down.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s understandable,” he returned politely. “But we think this will work out better in the long run.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mirai breathed in sharply through his nose, studying the two men seated in front of him in his agency office.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Alone, both Eraserhead and Detective Tsukauchi were highly competent individuals in their own fields. Together, they were almost annoyingly thorough. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Having returned in the day following the initial meeting between agencies, they bore new information and some rather firm… advice.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The girl, Eri, was unwilling to talk about her quirk. She seemed to deem it “dangerous” and “evil,” a thought process most likely forced upon her by her former captors. Perhaps Overhaul himself, seeing as she referred to a “Boss” that fit a vague description of the Precepts’ illusive leader. So, until they could have a more concrete solution, she would be a ward of UA, in proximity to Eraserhead, who could Erase her quirk if it happened to flare up, and to let her socialize with the teenagers she latched onto at the start. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A messy, unrefined, temporary stopgap. But he supposed it would have to do. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>However, the detective and pro also raised an issue with his agency’s planned raid on the Precepts. They believed it would be safer to wait for the League to make the first move.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Which Mirai took issue of his own with.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The 8 Precepts had steadily been gaining power in the vacuum All for One left behind upon his arrest,” he argued, narrowing his eyes. “And if what we’ve discovered with the girl is true, they’ve lost one of the most powerful footholds they have on the criminal underworld. They’re disorganized. We have information. And we have good standing to put an end to their operation </span>
  <em>
    <span>now.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You could be running directly into an ambush for all we know,” Eraserhead pointed out in a flat tone of voice. “Boil is confirmed to have been on the scene of both incidents in Kansai.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mirai drummed his fingers on his desk, trying not to let his irritation show on his face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The actions of a single serial killer is hardly a reason to call off plans over a year in the making.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No, but the fact that there were Copies of him, is,” Tsukauchi said, speaking up over the tension in the room. “Iwayama was notorious for only working alone before his initial arrest. He and Zhao went after heroes in Hosu simply to draw out Aang and Aizawa, and now he’s being seen working with the League? It’s a completely changed pattern of behavior.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The League is actively gunning for the Precepts,” Eraserhead said, finishing the point the two of them were making. “If we run a raid, no matter </span>
  <em>
    <span>who’s</span>
  </em>
  <span> involved, we’ll be heading straight into multiple conflicts that we may not be able to handle.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mirai scowled internally.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Damn the pair of them for making logical sense.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What about the Spirit Nomu?” he asked, trying for a less combative tone. “It’s likely we are going to begin to encounter more of them very soon. They can be defeated through normal quirk usage, yes?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So far as we know.” Tsukauchi shrugged, shooting Eraserhead a rather hesitant glance.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Aang’s the only one who can permanently get rid of them, so far as he’s aware,” the teacher said, pointedly blank. “And that requires close, immediate contact.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mirai leaned back, steepling his fingers thoughtfully.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And do you trust this child? Trust that he’s telling us all we need to know?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes,” Eraserhead immediately replied. Not an ounce of hesitation or conflict in his tone. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Interesting.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He did trust Eraserhead’s judgement. Underground heroes tended to be more reliable anyways, rarely falling victim to the obnoxious celebrity role so many Spotlight heroes did.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Very well,” he conceded, lowering his hands. “My agency will assist you. I’m assuming you have more concrete information on the League at this point?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He was polite enough not to remark on the almost imperceptible signs of relief in the two other men.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“From the pattern of missing people compared to where Aang has marked larger spirit incidents…”</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>Well, the good news was that Midoriya’s plan to contact the other spirits with Hei Bai’s help worked just about perfectly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The bad news, or rather just the </span>
  <em>
    <span>unfortunate</span>
  </em>
  <span> news, was that sending about a dozen spirits home one after another was very, very tiring.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang rubbed his forehead, fighting off the newest wave of exhaustion that swam behind his eyes. Hei Bai rumbled in his ear and pressed up against him, comfortably warm and solid. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Thanks, buddy,” Aang mumbled, patting his flank with a vague hand. “I’m alright.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The spirit seemed to disagree with that statement, considering the disgruntled chuff he made. He nosed Aang with his blunt snout, nearly knocking him over.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey,” Aang protested, bending his knees to stop himself from keeling backwards. “Please don’t. I have more work to do.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hei Bai merely nudged further into his stomach and Aang sighed as he tilted backwards, holding onto the thick fur at the scruff of the spirit’s neck to keep from falling all the way over.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Really?” he complained under his breath. “I’m fine. I’m </span>
  <em>
    <span>fine,</span>
  </em>
  <span> Hei Bai. Let me up.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Are we interrupting something?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang blinked at the sound of Midoriya’s amused voice, tilting his head backwards to catch sight of a small group of his friends cresting the small hill towards him. He and Hei Bai had taken to the small wooded area behind the dorms for this activity, out of sight from prying eyes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Nope,” he said, poking the spirit on the bridge of his nose. “Just Hei Bai being nosy.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The spirit grumbled but stepped back, allowing him space. Aang pulled himself upright once more, blinking spots out of his vision at the lightheaded sensation. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hi,” he greeted, welcoming his friends. Todoroki and Shinsou seemed to have joined Midoriya, as well as Eri, who had changed into a small red dress with buttons on the front. She looked up at him with solemn eyes as he offered her a soft smile. “What’s going on?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We,” Midoriya declared, dropping the blanket he had been holding with a decent amount of flair. “Are having a picnic.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hei Bai chuffed once more, tucking his feet underneath him on the grass, and Aang simply glanced between the now-resting spirit and his friends with no small amount of bewilderment. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“A… what?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Do you not know what a picnic is?” Todoroki asked with so much serious concern that Aang had to fight not to laugh, lifting some of his current gloom a little.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No, no- I do. But why? I’m, ah…” He trailed off and pointed to Hei Bai, who just rolled onto his side and closed his eyes, not helping his case at all. “I’m a little busy.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It can wait a bit, right?” Midoriya asked earnestly, green eyes unfairly wide and pleading. “I know you’ve got to be tired. It’s kind of the same for quirks; we get quirk exhaustion if we overuse them too much.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang paused, squinting at them in suspicion. Eri was calm and looked fairly content holding Shinsou’s hand, so they couldn’t be planning anything </span>
  <em>
    <span>too </span>
  </em>
  <span>nefarious.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m… not tired?” he tried.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You look like you’re gonna pass out in about ten seconds,” Shinsou said dryly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’d say closer to fifteen,” Aang replied automatically, forgetting momentarily that this wasn’t Sokka chewing him out.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And it was a pang of homesickness that wilted his breath as Shinsou responded with- “You know that’s not helping your case, right?”- instead of Sokka’s familiar banter at their old joke. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Aang?” Midoriya tilted his head. “Everything ok?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah.” Aang tried for a smile, rubbing the back of his neck. “Just… ok. A rest does kind of sound nice right about now.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya’s grin was sunny and bright.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Eri, will you help me put the blanket out?” he gently asked, crouching down next to the young girl. She nodded shyly, taking a hold of the thick blue fabric and doing her best to drag it across the grass.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang folded his legs underneath him as he watched in mild amusement, resting a hand on a content Hei Bai’s back.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Something whizzed by his face and he caught it instinctively, tossing Shinsou an alarmed look. The teen just grinned, unrepentant.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Heard you liked apples.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ah, it was an apple. Not some weird thrown weapon. Though, knowing Shinsou, it probably could be made to be one.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Is anyone else coming up?” he asked, rolling the fruit between his palms. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Tsuyu and Uraraka said they’d join in a bit,” Todoroki said, placing his backpack on the ground beside the blanket. “They have a project to finish. We also invited Kirishima, but he seemed to be busy. Momo said she’d bring tea.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Momo is responsible like that,” Shinsou confirmed, pulling out some water and  what looked like various other snacks out of his own backpack. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya finished unfolding the blanket out and promptly flopped backwards onto it, blowing hair out of his eyes. Eri followed suit after considering him for a moment, but much more gently and only after looking to Shinsou for reassurance. Aang finally got to his feet once more and grabbed a water of his own from Shinsou and some other snacks. He sat down cross legged next to the girl, careful not to move too fast.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You doing ok, Eri?” he asked, handing her a granola bar. She took it carefully, studying it with an amusing amount of intensity.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes,” she said after a moment, looking back up at him. “Shinsou is nice. And Master Aizawa said I can stay here.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang raised an eyebrow and looked to Shinsou, who seemed a bit flustered at being mentioned.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“She’s officially going to be a ward of UA for the time being,” he hastily explained, reading the unspoken question. “Sensei got it cleared with social services this morning. Detective Tsukauchi helped, apparently. That’s why he’s been gone.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eri </span>
  <em>
    <span>crunch</span>
  </em>
  <span>ed on the granola bar.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Well. She seemed pleased about this.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That was good to see.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s great, Eri,” Aang said with a smile, laying back onto the blanket. “That means we’ll get to see each other every day!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eri’s expression didn’t change, but her careful chewing on the snack seemed almost chipper.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Gentle conversation rose up after that, the teenagers content to lay down and wait for the rest of their friends to arrive. They ended up in almost a circle with Hei Bai off to the side, staring up at the clear blue sky.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What do you think about Persona as a hero name?” Shinsou asked, tucking his hands behind his head. “Thought about Mind Jack too, but I don’t want to step on Jirou’s toes.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hmm.” Midoriya clicked his tongue thoughtfully. “Persona is nice. Simple, short. Easy to yell. Thinking about changing your hero name?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, I don’t know. I like Mind Blank, but I also don’t exactly want to broadcast exactly what my quirk does, you know?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“A lot of Underground pros take names that don’t really correlate with their quirk,” Midoriya pointed out. “Like Sunspot- she’s got a reflex-based speed quirk.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, but her surface mutations are all gold and glowy and stuff. It’d be like naming myself “Eggplant.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’d actually suggest Aubergine if you wanted to go in the color direction.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That was absolutely </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> the point, Todoroki. What about you? Planning on going by name forever?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I… don’t know. I’ve heard some suggestions, but I don’t know if I like any of them yet.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Run them by us and maybe we can help you out!” Aang offered.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Todoroki sighed, seeing all his friends plus Eri looking at him expectantly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t like Freezerburn, Icyhot, or Thermostat, but Ashido and Kaminari seemed to think they were funny.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shinsou apparently thought so too, if his snort was anything to go by. Todoroki glowered, something that lost its intimidation factor when seen upside down.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Frostfire and Comet Tail were interesting,” he continued. “I’m not sure about Entropy or Crucible.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey, Entropy is pretty cool,” Shinsou said, sounding genuinely interested. Todoroki frowned slightly, brow furrowing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t know. It feels too… is edgy the right word?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang wasn’t exactly sure what that word meant, but Shinsou and Midoriya immediately broke into laughter, the latter actually rolling onto his side to smother his snickers a bit.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I mean it!” Todoroki protested, sitting up himself. “I feel like I’d have to dye my hair black and wear a mask to hide my identity or something. Can you imagine?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No, that doesn’t sound like you at all,” Aang agreed, grinning slightly at the betrayed look Todoroki threw in his direction at his teasing tone. “You, running around on rooftops doing secret vigilante things? I could never see it.” He tilted his head, smile widening as Shinsou rolled over too, his shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter. “What color would your mask be, though? Blue?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Todoroki squinted at him and pointed an accusing finger in his direction.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You are not nearly as nice as you seem to be.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang laughed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He didn’t know if it was all humor at the slight ridiculousness of this situation, or relief at an escape from the loneliness that had been creeping up on him for the past couple weeks, and frankly, he didn’t care.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But it was nice to have friends.</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>“Toga, </span>
  <em>
    <span>stop it.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The person in question pouted, but obliged and stopped the casual knife toss she’d had going on.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You’re no fun,” she sulked, squirreling the two knives away on her person. “We get to go fighting today! Aren’t you at least a </span>
  <em>
    <span>little</span>
  </em>
  <span> bit excited?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dabi just scowled at her and crossed his arms.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That crazy’s gonna bite you back one day,” he threatened, though his heart wasn’t really in it. She seemed to be able to tell, because she flashed her canines at him in a broad grin.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Awww…” she cooed. “Is scary ole Dabi nervous? Scared to fight the big bad Mr. Chisaki?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She easily ducked under the condensed fireball that splashed against the bricks behind her, cackling.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Shut up.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey!” Shigaraki snapped. “Will you idiots focus for a minute?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes, boss,” Toga snickered, ignoring Dabi’s growl of irritation behind her. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The villain glared at the two of them suspiciously for a moment before turning back to Kurogiri, who was waiting for them all to be ready with the patient air of a long-suffering parent.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Magne, Compress and Spinner in position?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes. Twice is close by, as well as the General.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, </span>
  <em>
    <span>finally.”</span>
  </em>
  <span> That was Boil, stretching his arms out in front of him. “For a “League of Villains,” we don’t actually do things very often.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You’re welcome to sit this one out,” Shigaraki said with faux-pleasantry, narrowing his eyes at the other man.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And miss out on the opportunity to kill any heroes that come running? Oh, no. I’m following you on this one, oh glorious leader.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dabi rolled his eyes, valiantly resisting the urge to torch the man. Fucking serial killers. Worst cases of creepy tunnel vision.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Like sure, he’d kill people if he needed to. But Boil had a </span>
  <em>
    <span>weird</span>
  </em>
  <span> obsession with making it personal.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He couldn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>wait</span>
  </em>
  <span> for him and the General to finally move on. The League had never exactly been a group of well-functioning individuals, but what they’d been doing lately just felt… unnerving. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Oh well.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kurogiri’s familiar swirling portal opened in front of them all. Shigaraki stepped through, Boil close behind. Toga skipped through with her usual cheer.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dabi cracked his knuckles, letting a fierce grin spread across his face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Time to get to work.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0022"><h2>22. Things Don't Go To Plan</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>here have this and prepare thyselves</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Meanwhile, elsewhere, somehow, a familiar group of people were dealing with their own set of problems.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>...</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sokka, are you sure this is going to work?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Absolutely not. But hey, what do we have to lose?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“...I can’t believe I’m related to you.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>...</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“Fine,</span>
  </em>
  <span> fine. I’ll go get it.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh, you </span>
  <em>
    <span>better,</span>
  </em>
  <span> Sparky.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It wasn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>my</span>
  </em>
  <span> idea!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You say that like I care.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>...</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Take </span>
  <em>
    <span>that,</span>
  </em>
  <span> you stupid overgrown spirit!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sokka, don’t antagonize it!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I mean, it's not like this could get any </span>
  <em>
    <span>worse.” </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Zuko tempted fate! It’s not my fault this time.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“Toph.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>…</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey Sokka, remember the cactus? Feeling </span>
  <em>
    <span>thirsty?”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Tui and La, </span>
  <em>
    <span>stop reminding me,</span>
  </em>
  <span> Toph. I hate this desert enough as is.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>…</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sokka, hand me my fans, please.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“...are you going to kill them?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No. But I </span>
  <em>
    <span>am</span>
  </em>
  <span> going to put the fear of Kyoshi in them if they don’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>tell us what we need to know.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>…</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We’re coming, Aang. Just hold on.”</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>Shouta was at Nighteye’s agency for the third time in almost as many days and he was </span>
  <em>
    <span>not happy </span>
  </em>
  <span>about it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I feel like we should have expected this,” he sighed, dragging a hand down his face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I think we did- we just didn’t move fast enough,” Ryukyu said grimly, crossing her arms. “At least they weren’t interested in civilian casualties.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We were complacent.” That was Nighteye, pacing the length of the conference room with the stalking stride of an angry panther. “Damage on this grand of a scale is </span>
  <em>
    <span>unacceptable.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“But it's controlled,” Fat Gum placated. He indicated to the digital map onscreen at the moment, illustrating the depth of the chaos that had transpired in the criminal underworld in the last day or so. “The League knew what they wanted and they knew </span>
  <em>
    <span>where</span>
  </em>
  <span> it was. Look at that pattern. It’s systematic.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“A lot of thought went into planning this raid,” Hizashi said by Shouta’s side, his arms crossed and an intent look in his eyes. “And we all know that isn’t Shigaraki’s strong suit. He’s not the play maker in the League right now. The General is.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta resisted the urge to shift on his feet, vaguely uncomfortable with the amount of heroes in the room. Combine a good portion of the UA staff with the pros already in on the situation, and you had a lot of people in one place.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>At least he was familiar with the majority of them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So?” Nemuri said impatiently. Shouta could see her fiddling with her whip from here, smacking the handle of it into her palm. “What did they want?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Nighteye twitched just barely, the only sign of irritation in his otherwise controlled visage. He folded his hands behind him, facing the screen.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Trigger and Nullification; the two drugs the Precepts had been controlling the distribution of,” he said flatly. “So far as we have been able to tell, they succeeded in their mission.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Do we know how much they took?” Fat Gum asked, pensive. Nighteye didn’t quite scowl, but Shouta recognized the look in his eyes that said how much he wanted to.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We weren’t entirely sure where the Precepts were storing or manufacturing their stock before now. So no- all we have are the remains of an operation. Here.” Nighteye pulled up a new screen for them to see. “These warehouses-” He pointed them out. “We’d been keeping our eyes on that area for consistent traffic, but the League simply destroyed everything in the surrounding area once they were finished.” His lips thinned. “Two fire quirks are a powerful combination.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Three,” Shouta pointed out, not to be pedantic, but for the reminder of Zhao’s part in all this. “And that’s another thing we need to be mindful of. While the Spirit Nomu seem to be consistently visible, and the General is apparently tied to his armor, there could still be more lone spirits like Zhao assisting him out of their own volition. And if they’re on their own, </span>
  <em>
    <span>we can’t see them.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You’re 100% certain of that?” Nighteye demanded, brow furrowed with a ferocious intensity. Shouta gritted his teeth.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’ve encountered over a dozen spirits with Aang. And consistently, I’ve been unable to see every single one of them unless they </span>
  <em>
    <span>wanted</span>
  </em>
  <span> me to. That includes the spirit I physically fought.” He looked around the room, meeting the serious faces of the assembled pros. “For all we know, there could be some here right now.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well, that’s a whole new reason to start being paranoid,” he heard Snipe mutter off to the side.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And we did have sightings of the Spirit Nomu,” Ryukyu brought up. “We confirmed at least four, but the exact number the League has at their disposal is still unknown.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So what’s next?” That was Kan speaking up, the first time Shouta’s coworker had done so in this conversation. “No one makes plans without an end goal. They’ve done all this preparation for something.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Perhaps All Might is still their target,” Nighteye said, coldly thoughtful. “Shigaraki in particular has had an obsession with the man. In the wake of his retirement, perhaps they finally see an opening to kill him.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No.” Shouta shook his head, discomfort twisting in his gut. “They’re coming after Aang.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The room was quiet as everyone turned to him, and Shouta internally swore as he realized he hadn’t tipped his hand yet on what he and Tsukuachi had figured out about the General.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“General Old Iron is essentially running the League of Villains for the moment,” he said. “We’ve established that. And whatever he promised them, they’re willing to go to great lengths for it.” He dipped his chin. “And the General wants to rid his world of the Avatar; their “bridge” between their two planes of existence. So- he’s coming after Aang.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“All of this just for the kid?” Snipe asked, the set of his shoulders indicating his discomfort at the thought.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta shrugged.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He’s their All Might,” he said plainly. “He has power. A lot of it. And we all know what people are capable of when going after something like that.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There was a solemn silence as people processed that statement. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Protective custody?” Ryukyu suggested. “Detective Tsukauchi and the police force are assisting us. Hide, rather than fight.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That won’t work,” Shouta pointed out tiredly. “Spirits can sense each other. Wherever Aang goes, the General will be able to find him.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So we keep him at UA,” Hizashi said decisively, and Shouta felt a surge of relieved affection for his husband. “It’s one of the safest places around, honestly, with our security system.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What about your students?” Fat Gum asked, his own brow furrowed, likely thinking of his interns. “They’ll also be on campus. Can we also ensure their safety?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m afraid there is no option available to us that is completely safe.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Everyone turned to look as Nedzu spoke, the first thing he’d said since this meeting had begun. The Principal got to his feet, paws behind his back, black eyes gazing out seriously at the assembled pros.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I agree with Yamada. UA may not be the perfect solution- nothing ever is- but for the moment it appears to be the best solution.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That brings us back to Fat Gum’s question of safety.” Nighteye locked eyes with the Principal. “What if the League of Villains tries to attack UA? Again?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Nedzu smiled.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was one that not many people outside of the UA staff ever saw- sharp and feral.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We’ll be ready.”</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>Aang thought things were coming along alright.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And he </span>
  <em>
    <span>really</span>
  </em>
  <span> hoped he wasn’t going to jinx things by thinking that.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>No, no. Fate didn’t work like that. He was fine.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>...anyways.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Master Aizawa had been on edge for the past few days. Not that he wasn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>usually</span>
  </em>
  <span> somewhat on edge; it was hard to get anything past the man. But something had changed. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Whatever was bothering him, he was keeping it close to his chest, and this was coming from someone that was notoriously tight-lipped when it came to most things in general. So this must be really bad.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Maybe it was the work studies? It had been about a week since they’d started (and since they’d found Eri), and while there hadn’t been any more signs of villains or spirits interfering with the other students, it seemed to be a little stressful for those involved. Understandably.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>So it was a non-school day morning once again, but a good portion of the students in the dorms were preparing for their day earlier than many of them normally would have.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What are you up to today?” Aang asked, prompting Todoroki to look at him with that vaguely befuddled face he always had when Aang addressed him first. “Going out?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No.” Todoroki hesitated. “I have remedial training. It starts today.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh.” Aang couldn’t quite stop the wince. “With Bakugou, right?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah. As well as Inasa and another student from Shiketsu that didn’t pass.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hopefully, he’ll be able to get his provisional license by the end of it,” Midoriya added, yawning, having come up beside his friend to hand him a steaming mug. Todoroki accepted it with the barest hint of a smile in thanks.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s great!” Aang took a sip of his own tea, waving back to Dark Shadow as Tokoyami passed by, his quirk cheerfully leaning over one shoulder. “How long does it go for?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Three months, I think. We’ll be gone on the weekends until then.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Like the rest of us,” Midoriya said, suppressing another yawn. He was a bit bleary eyed this morning- seemed his odd dreams with One for All hadn’t stopped. “Boy, don’t get me wrong, I like work studies. Even if Sir Nighteye is… hard to learn from. But I will welcome it when I get free weekends back.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hmm.” Aang glanced over to the table in the main common room. Ojiro and Hagakure were seated there currently, the former saying something quietly while the latter fiddled with her hero costume’s light projector. “It looks like it's wearing you guys out. Master Aizawa and Shinsou usually look tired anyways while we’re patrolling, but I guess it's spreading.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Everyone's a little tired.” Midoriya rubbed the back of his neck. “Work studies were already kind of stressful, but with everything else going on now, it’s… it's hard.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang winced.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sorry,” he said quietly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya quickly waved his hands, looking apologetic.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No, no, it's not your fault!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Well… it kind of is. </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But he pasted as genuine of a smile as he could make it on his face and said, “Thanks, Midoriya,” instead. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A familiar flash of dark clothing across the room caught his eye and signaled Master Aizawa’s typical check in of his students on weekend mornings. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Oh! Right.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He turned to Todoroki and clapped him on the shoulder, prompting another of those </span>
  <em>
    <span>hilarious</span>
  </em>
  <span> looks of mingled confusion.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You,” he said, looking into mismatched grey and blue eyes. “Are going to do fantastic. Because you are already pretty amazing.” He tapped Todoroki on the nose. “Ok! Gotta go talk to Master Aizawa, see you later.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He trotted off the go follow the teacher. For some reason, Midoriya started cackling behind him as he walked away.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Master Aizawa?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“...is this something I need more coffee for?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Probably.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“...let me get some.”</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t get it,” Kaminari said blankly, looking between Aang and Shouta.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang shot Shouta a halfway panicked look, clearly not having expected that specific answer.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I…” Aang tucked his hands behind his back. “Well, a lot of people already know about me and spirits and stuff, like Kirishima and Midoriya. And Master Aizawa said it was ok so- I’d like to help you with your quirk. If I can. With your lightning. Electricity. Is that… ok?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Uh… yes?” The other teen also flashed a bewildered look at Shouta, given the fact he was the only adult in the room. Side-effects of being a teacher. “I was mostly confused on the “how” part.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang’s shoulders dropped minutely, relaxing now that he knew Kaminari wasn’t focusing on his past. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“My world bends lightning differently than you do,” he explained. “And I was hoping we could get a feel for it between the two of us. Work together on something to make your quirk stronger.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kaminari blinked.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Why me?” he asked, bordering on incredulous. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And shit, that was something that had slipped by Shouta too. He’d missed that resigned slump of this kid’s shoulders when talking about his quirk, like he didn’t even expect </span>
  <em>
    <span>himself</span>
  </em>
  <span> to do anything better with it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Silently, he thanked Aang for still having so much kindness in him when his world had given him every reason to lose it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang tilted his head, looking genuinely confused.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Why not you?” he said. “I think I can help your quirk- why would I keep that away from you?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>An odd look crossed Kaminari’s face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ok,” he finally said, subdued in a way that Shouta rarely saw. “How do we start?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And so now Shouta had to manage yet another of his students in the realm of spirits. It was almost becoming a hobby.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Or a legitimate job, rather than some strange will of twisted fates or whatever.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Fuck, his life was weird.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But Kaminari hadn’t even blinked upon hearing Aang’s story, an aspect of his character that Shouta had never fully appreciated until now. If there was one thing you could trust about Kaminari, it was his ability to simply roll with things, no matter how strange they may seem.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta settled in on his customary stop in the bleachers of the gym to keep watch and catch up on some grading.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>(There was </span>
  <em>
    <span>never</span>
  </em>
  <span> an end to grading. Some things were eternal.)</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang ran Kaminari through a now-familiar set of stretches, gently easing the rather nervous student through the process. In fact, Kaminari was expressing an amusing amount of concern for someone that usually appeared to have little to no sense of self preservation.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ready?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Can I say no?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Of course you can.” Aang folded his arms, giving Kaminari a discerning look. “Is that what you want?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kaminari blew out a breath, rubbing the back of his neck.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No,” he admitted. “Sorry. I don’t usually work on my quirk with other people. Do I just… you know.” He waved his hands back and forth between himself and Aang, who was waiting patiently. “Just, like zap?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah.” Aang took a step back so they were maybe a meter apart, an amused expression on his face. “It’s ok, I know what I’m doing. I </span>
  <em>
    <span>have</span>
  </em>
  <span> done this before, you know.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kaminari winced.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s not that I </span>
  <em>
    <span>doubt</span>
  </em>
  <span> that. I just…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang waited, patient and understanding.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I can’t control the path it takes,” Kaminari said after a few seconds of wrestling with his thoughts, sounding a little frustrated by that fact. “I actually have some support items I had made to help with that. You know, so I don’t hurt my friends with my quirk. Or…” he shrugged. “Or myself, with too much discharge.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang tilted his head, considering him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Would it be easier for you if we held hands to transfer it first?” he asked. “Less chance of anything getting out of control.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Maybe?” Kaminari said, looking a little flustered. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang just grinned, warm and sympathetic.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Here.” He held out his hands to the other teen, taking a steady stance, his feet shoulder width apart. Kaminari copied him, a little clumsily, and reached out to clasp hands with uncharacteristic hesitation.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Go ahead,” Aang encouraged. “You won’t hurt me.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kaminari swallowed, then took a deep breath.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Electricity flashed through the air. Shouta shifted instinctively, watching the scene with a careful eye as the hair on the back of his neck stood up and he tasted copper on his tongue.</span>
</p>
<p><span>Sparking light</span> <span>curled around their joined hands. Golden white and practically tangible, vaguely unnatural in its brightness.</span></p>
<p>
  <span>Aang’s eyes went wide and he tilted his head. Kaminari startled as soon as he did so, immediately breaking the point of contact and dropping his hands.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m sorry! I-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s fine!” Aang interrupted, cutting off the surge of worry from the other teen. He held up his own hands, showing the lack of injuries of pain.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Instead, the electricity, no, the </span>
  <em>
    <span>lightning,</span>
  </em>
  <span> shimmered between his palms as he held them close, tendrils of it leaping from hand to hand like a plasma ball.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Huh.” Aang flexed his fingers, prompting the sparks to leap along his skin. He looked almost puzzled. “Kaminari, your lightning is… warm?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Is that a good thing?” the other teen asked, looking significantly more confused.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang relaxed his arms but kept them moving in a wave-like motion, letting the energy flow around him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“All the other lightning I’ve ever encountered has been really cold,” he admitted, tone distant in a way that spoke of difficult memories to recall. “Angry. Hungry, I guess. But yours feels… not exactly like fire, but… natural?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Huh,” Kaminari echoed. He pulled a wry face. “This is working much better than my quirk training usually goes.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That must be a pretty low bar,” Aang said, raising an eyebrow. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kaminari snorted.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You have no idea.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta frowned, though neither of them could see him currently, and made a mental note to work with Kaminari more often.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So, we both have a feel for your lightning now. Do you want me to show you how I redirect it?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Please.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang slowly performed the stance Shouta had seen him do on the first day of him in class, two fingers extended on each hand. Kaminari copied it, a focused look on his face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“In my world, lightning comes from firebenders splitting their energy and letting it crash back together. But for you, it's not as… chaotic, I guess. So you just need to focus on your ki.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kaminari blinked, pausing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang stopped as well, tapping him on the stomach.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Your ki. It’s where you get your power.” He stood up straight once more, thinking. “When you bend too much, it hurts your head, right?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, I get all stupid for a while.” Kaminari winced, tapping the side of his head. “It’s kind of painful, too. Doctors said it's because my brain is protecting itself.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So don’t bend through your head.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Aang, you’re great, but I have </span>
  <em>
    <span>no idea</span>
  </em>
  <span> what that means.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s not really something I can explain,” Aang said, chuckling a bit. “But think of it this way. Your energy doesn’t come from your head- or your head wouldn’t have to protect itself. So, it comes from your core.” He patted himself on his own stomach. “That’s your ki. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Keep</span>
  </em>
  <span> it there.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Huh.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Does that kind of make sense?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I </span>
  <em>
    <span>think</span>
  </em>
  <span> so.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Want to try it now?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes,” Kaminari immediately agreed, because he feared neither God nor Bakugou.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They parted slightly, Aang taking to one side of the gym while Kaminari stayed where he was. Shouta sat up a little in his seat, leaning forwards to watch more closely.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Crackling energy blitzed between Kaminari’s fingers. He frowned, keeping a sharp focus on Aang across from him. Then slowly, he copied the motion Aang had shown him, swirling his quirk in circles around his body before-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Crack.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Several spikes of energy crashed out across the floor, wild and multiplying, but much more controlled than a normal quirk outburst from the teen. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang spun on his feet, arms twisting inwards to catch the electricity as it rushed to him. In a quick movement, he lashed a singular arm out back towards Kaminari, smooth and fluid.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was a dance; a potentially lethal, terrifying one, but a dance nonetheless. A graceful display of precision and focus.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Didn’t make it any less nerve-wracking.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kaminari seemed to be slightly startled by the returned lightning and he ended up dropping his quirk after absorbing it once more, dashing electricity harmlessly into the ground beneath him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta let his shoulders relax slightly, releasing the preparation he’d had on his quirk.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang jogged back over to Kaminari.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Everything ok?” he asked. “That looked really good!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kaminari hadn’t moved, standing in the same place he’d dismissed the lightning, a vaguely stunned look on his face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta frowned, glancing back out across the floor. That had been a significant discharge. He may be a little dizzy from it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kaminari sucked in a shaky breath, holding the side of his head.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It worked,” he said, voice watery and full of relief. “Holy shit, that </span>
  <em>
    <span>worked.”</span>
  </em>
  
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang’s face split in a wide grin.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“How did that feel?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It doesn’t hurt.” Kaminari swallowed hard. “That </span>
  <em>
    <span>always</span>
  </em>
  <span> hurts if I’m using enough to discharge like that. But it didn’t.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang hopped in place, looking ecstatic.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You know, while your long range is really strong, it's not the most precise. But if you can use what you just did at closer ranges, or in hand to hand, that would be really powerful! I know bending won’t apply to everything you can do but-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Aang.” The monk stilled as Shouta’s student interrupted by reaching out a hand, the pair of them ending up in a halfway sort of hug.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“Thank</span>
  </em>
  <span> you,” Kaminari said quietly, his voice rough with emotion.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Something softened in Aang’s face, and he dropped his head on the other’s shoulder.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m just glad I could help.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And despite his worry for the future, the League, and the spirits, Shouta felt more at ease than he had in awhile.</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>Unfortunately, things like ease and quiet never lasted long in this world.</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>It was late.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku knew he should probably be sleeping. It was a school night, after all. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But his arms were hurting- that bone deep, throbbing ache that had become annoyingly familiar. Thus, tea and a walk; the warm mug to sooth his hands a bit, the walk to sooth his head. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He breathed in deeply taking in the view of the moon as he stopped on the dorm steps. He never went too far. He didn’t want a repeat of that night down at Ground Beta, thank you very much.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku yawned, sitting down on the steps. He should probably go back to bed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Danger.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku startled, barely keeping his thermos from spilling as </span>
  <em>
    <span>something</span>
  </em>
  <span> chilled its way down his spine.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What?” he couldn’t help but say out loud, the soft word almost lost in the ambient sounds of nighttime around him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A sense of urgency that </span>
  <em>
    <span>wasn’t</span>
  </em>
  <span> his own prickled goosebumps onto his skin. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>They’re here.</span>
  </em>
  
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was definitely a voice this time, worried and low. It echoed around his thoughts, overlaying but not intruding.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Get up, kiddo. </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku got to his feet, blinking. Black hair flashed in the corner of his eye for a moment, so quick he’d almost have thought he’d imagined it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Whatever question he was going to ask, because even </span>
  <em>
    <span>he </span>
  </em>
  <span>himself wasn’t quite sure what to say, was cut off and died on his tongue as an earth-shattering rumble </span>
  <em>
    <span>shook</span>
  </em>
  <span> the ground beneath him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku stumbled, instinctively grabbing onto the railing of the stairs and stared out across the dark expanse of the campus. There, out in the black, lights were starting to show. The ground shook again, more audible, and </span>
  <em>
    <span>sounds</span>
  </em>
  <span> began to filter through; crunching, screeching, </span>
  <em>
    <span>wailing</span>
  </em>
  <span> sounds.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Oh no.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku bolted inside.</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>Outside of the wall that surrounded UA, concrete crumbled and disintegrated under massive, distorted limbs. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kurogiri silently closed the warp gate behind all of them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shigaraki patted the nearest Spirit Nomu before it flung itself forwards, through the wall as alarms began to sound and flash red.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He smiled. It wasn’t pleasant.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Get the girl.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0023"><h2>23. The Beginning of the End</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Are you ready for a showdown?</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Shouta had never been more upset to have a bad feeling of his validated.</p><p>
  <em> Damn it, Nedzu.  </em>
</p><p>They were ready, don’t get him wrong. The alarm system was doing its job, and the new defenses should be activating just about now. But for <em> fuck’s sake, </em> there had to have been a less nerve-wracking way to get these things done.</p><p>Enough of that. He had a job to do.</p><p>He hadn’t exactly been sleeping lately, and thus was already suited up when the alarms went off. Shouta slammed his laptop shut, glancing out the window instinctively, though nothing could be seen from this angle.</p><p>Midoriya skidded in the common room the moment he stepped out of his door, a stricken look paling his face to white.</p><p>“Sensei!” he panted, trying to catch his breath. He was already dressed in shorts and a t-shirt; he’d been on one of his midnight walk arounds before the commotion started. </p><p>He could hear the other students upstairs, waking up and moving around from all the noise, confused and anxious.</p><p>Damn it.</p><p>“Midoriya.” He was so <em> angry, </em> and so worried for his students, but he couldn’t afford to show that right now, not when they needed him to stay calm and control the situation. “Gather the rest of your classmates. Evacuate everyone back to the main campus, just like we discussed. Cementoss has the safehouse prepared.” Shouta took a shallow breath, his mind already humming with plans and possible scenarios. “Tell them they have permission to defend themselves.” Midoriya nodded dutifully and he fought the urge to grit his teeth.</p><p>“Stay safe,” he managed to say, trying to ignore the tug at his chest when some of the fear in his student’s eyes faded at his words. “Go.”</p><p>Midoriya dashed off, green lightning sparking around his limbs.</p><p>One self-sacrificial problem child out of the way. Time to find the next one.</p><p>Bounding out the side door to the mist-filled lawn outside rewarded him with the view of encroaching chaos. Light flashed in the distance, and he could see shadowy shapes lumbering out by the walls. There was a hole in the boundary line, and if he squinted and shaded his eyes he thought he could maybe see the familiar, distorted shapes of Nomu, even in these spirit-filled forms.</p><p>A deep, ripping growl tore through the air from his left and he whirled on his feet, seeing the imposing black and white silhouette of Hei Bai. An eldritch maw flashed in his face for a moment and he blinked, before it transformed back into the bear shape that the massive spirit favored. </p><p>“Master Aizawa!”</p><p>One of his kids skidded into view for the second time in as many minutes. Aang came to a halt next to Hei Bai, anxiously dropping his hand into the thick fur along the spirit’s flank. Eri peeked out from behind Hei Bai at the same time, just like the first night he saw her, just as afraid and it made Shouta’s heart <em> ache. </em></p><p>Aang’s nose was bleeding, which made a grim amount of sense as Shouta remembered his reaction to the singular Spirit Nomu at the Licensing Exam. If there were multiple, like he suspected, it must be wreaking havoc with the kid’s head. </p><p>“They’re here,” he confirmed before Shouta even opened his mouth. “I can feel it.”</p><p>“How many?”</p><p>“Four,” Aang said, his voice already scratchy. He sniffed, wiping his nose with the back of his hand and wincing at the sight of the blood when he pulled away. “Hei Bai feels them too.”</p><p>Shouta nodded, clenching his jaw.</p><p>“We need to move,” he said. “They’re pouring resources into this, so we need to assume this is their frontal assault. They may have something else up their sleeves.”</p><p>“You’re leaving?”</p><p>Eri’s voice was barely more than a squeak as she darted out from behind the spirit, almost colliding with Shouta’s legs as she stared desperately up at him. He felt something in his chest break a little bit as he crouched down to her level, letting her take his hand. </p><p>“Not for long,” he reassured her. “But these are villains. We need to deal with them. And-” he glanced up at Hei Bai. “We need to get you out of here. They may know about you.”</p><p>“No,” she sniffed, taking a step back. “I don’t want to leave you.”</p><p>“Eri.” That was Aang, anguish clear to see on his face as he drew her attention. “I’m sorry, but we <em> need </em> to have you and Hei Bai get to safety.”</p><p>Eri burst into tears and held her arms out to him. His face tightened, but he immediately knelt down and gathered her in his arms.</p><p><em> “Please,” </em> Eri sobbed. “Please don’t go.” </p><p>“It’s going to be ok.” Aang’s voice cracked as she clung to him, tears sliding down her face. “I <em> promise, </em> Eri. We’ll be back.”</p><p>She was still crying as Shouta helped her up onto Hei Bai, who’d been standing silent and still this entire exchange.</p><p>“Ok.” Aang swallowed, patting the spirit’s shoulder. “Go on. Come back when it's safe.”</p><p>A low growl was the response.</p><p>“No, it's ok. <em> We’ll </em> be ok.”</p><p>Hei Bai snarled silently, massive shoulders hunching.</p><p>“Hei Bai, <em> please,” </em> Aang said desperately, pushing the furious spirit. “You <em> have </em> to go. Get Eri out of here. <em> Please.”  </em></p><p>The spirit grumbled deep in his chest, nuzzling Aang for a moment. The teen closed his eyes, pressing his own forehead to the spirit’s in silent affirmation.</p><p>“Thank you,” he whispered. “We couldn’t have done any of this without you.”</p><p>Hei Bai made a low, sad sound, but turned away, Eri clinging to the fur of his broad back. The same kaleidoscope of color swirled in the air as the universe bent around the two of them-</p><p>And then they were gone.</p><p>Aang ran a hand through his hair, mussing the black scruff, and that specific nervous tick made a bit more sense now.</p><p>“They’ll be alright,” Shouta said quietly, feeling the need to reassure at least one of them. The kid’s mouth quirked up in a sad smile.</p><p>“I hope so.” He looked out over the chaos roiling over the walls, face tightening. “I have to get in there.”</p><p>“I know.” Shouta rested a hand on his shoulder, lightly squeezing. “You’re free to use all the bending you want. This secret isn’t worth your life.”</p><p>Aang's grin was weak and slightly shaky, but still there.</p><p>“It was a pretty awful secret, anyways.”</p><p>Shouta huffed with a small laugh. Aang smiled a bit wider before gathering his feet underneath him and taking off, streaking towards the Spirit Nomu.</p><p>He wasn’t the best counter for a Nomu, especially not one of the Spirit variety. Shouta knew that. He needed to cut off any League members and take them down before they could exploit the holes in UA’s defenses the Nomu and the General had opened.</p><p>It was the logical decision.</p><p>But as he ran, he couldn’t help but silently hope that he was doing the right thing.</p><hr/><p>Nedzu was paranoid as hell, but Hizashi had never been more glad for that, and for the principal’s executive decision to have all the teachers on campus this week during night shifts.</p><p>Out of the teachers, Midnight and Hound Dog were keeping the students out of the line of fire, with Cementoss running interference on the middle ground in case one of the League or a Nomu got past the front line.</p><p>Which left him and Snipe, then Vlad King and Thirteen, and Ectoplasm and Power Loader containing the outskirts of the fight. The rest were regrouping.</p><p>Unfortunately, that also meant that Hizashi currently had a Nomu trying to take his head off his shoulders.</p><p>And he liked his head, thank you very much. It was a nice head. The only one he <em> had, </em> so it would be nice if he could <em> keep it-  </em></p><p>Hizashi hit the ground in a roll, trying to get back out of range where he was <em> supposed </em> to be. He sent a scream back at the Nomu for good measure, managing to give himself a bit of breathing room as the monster reared back from the sonic blast.</p><p>The sharp retort of Snipe’s gun went off behind him four times. The Nomu screamed as well, shaking itself as the bullets presumably buried themselves rather uncomfortably in its body.</p><p>“Move!” the hero shouted, sliding to a halt beside him and quickly reloading his gun.</p><p>Hizashi ducked, letting Snipe take his shots, the cracks from the gun echoing out sharply even through the general noise of the battle.</p><p>The two of them booked it a moment later as the Nomu charged the pair of them, seemingly incensed by their continued existences. </p><p>“It’s weak points ain’t feeling very weak!” Snipe shouted, frustrated. “I’m not slowing it down!”</p><p>“We need to fall back, then.” Hizashi gritted his teeth and glanced backwards, seeing the amount of space they still had before the Nomu started to hit the buildings. “We’ll take it as it comes.”</p><p>There was a shrieking, <em> crunching </em>sound as they both ducked behind a shed just in time to avoid getting shredded as a whip-like black tail crashed through the top of the structure, nearly decapitating the pair of them.</p><p>
  <em> Whoosh. </em>
</p><p>Fire erupted in their field of vision and the Nomu staggered back a step, decently upset by the explosion that had just gone off in its face.</p><p>A familiar teenager was on the scene.</p><p>There wasn’t any water nearby for Aang to manipulate, but it didn’t seem to slow him down in the slightest as he darted around the Nomu, wind whistling in his wake. He stomped, shaking the ground, and swung a flurry of kicks in the monster’s direction, each one directing a chunk of rock that had flown into the air, suspended from the initial impact.</p><p>Damn, Hizashi got what Shouta meant.</p><p>But he had a job to do, so he’d think about that later.</p><p>The kid bounced off his next attack, a slashing downwards kick <em> erupting </em> with flames giving him the space to flip backwards with a gust of buffering air.</p><p>He landed lightly on the nearest light post, whipping his head around to see Hizashi and Snipe in their own fortified positions, crouched behind the low wall. </p><p>“I can box it in!” Aang shouted. He gestured to two angles alongside the monster, ones that would cut off a side attack. </p><p>Hizashi took in the vectors and signaled to Snipe before flashing a thumbs up back at the kid. </p><p>He nodded back and leapt, straight as an arrow. </p><p>Wind roared in everyone’s ears as he summoned a cyclone underneath him, bolstering his movements as he pulled left, then right with strong blocked forearms, fists clenched. Massive planes of earth rotated out of the ground, dust shaking and stone rumbling, slamming upright on each side of the Nomu to press inwards. It <em> roared </em> at the confining impact, thrashing against the walls and Aang whirled away on his personal tempest, slashing a streak of fire across his body to sear a gash into the gnarled, bubbling flesh the monster called its body.</p><p>A bloom of electricity sparked out from that tear along the Nomu’s neck in the next second as Snipe took his shot in the opening, the shock bullet doing its job.</p><p>Hizashi took a deep breath, adjusting his speaker.</p><p>
  <em> Thruuummm. </em>
</p><p>His mostly incoherent scream blasted into the Nomu, several intensities higher than he usually would have dared with people around. Snipe and Aang were mostly safe behind him, but the Nomu was shredded with the vibrations, black ichor oozing from torn surfaces, unable to move backwards with the rock boxing it in.</p><p>A strangled yowl erupted forth and the Nomu writhed like a dog shaking off water, shattering the makeshift walls surrounding it. Snipe grabbed the back of Hizashi’s collar as stone flew through the air, pulling him back behind cover before he could get brained by falling projectiles.</p><p>Aang sprinted over the crumbled slope of stone, feet finding footholds where there should have been none, swinging himself onto the Nomu’s head and planting his hands palms down on its twisted, blackened flesh.</p><p>His head snapped up a moment later, eyes glowing blue-white in the darkness.</p><p>Hizashi instinctively shielded his eyes as a radiant halo of light blitzed out from Aang’s position, burning away the miasma of fog surrounding them. It shone for a few more seconds, a high-pitched ringing on the edges of their hearing.</p><p>When the light finally vanished, it was like a piece of the universe had been snatched away in the wake of such brilliance. Hizashi blinked spots out of his eyes, squinting back at the last seen position of the Nomu. </p><p>It was gone.</p><p>Aang hit the ground in that newly empty space, rolling to a halt in an ungraceful tangle of limbs not far from where the Nomu had disappeared.</p><p>Hizashi instantly dashed out from behind cover, sliding to a halt beside the kid and automatically checking around for any more incoming enemies.</p><p>“You ok?” he asked urgently, glancing downwards. Aang pushed himself up onto his elbows, wincing.</p><p>“Yeah.” He coughed, wiping away a smear of red trickling out of the corner of his mouth. “Are you and Master Snipe ok?”</p><p>“Jeez, kid, you’re going to make me feel old,” Hizashi grumbled, helping him to his feet. “We’re supposed to be worried for <em>you</em>- we’re the adults here.”</p><p>“Master Aizawa says that a lot, too,” Aang said with a raspy chuckle, accepting the supporting hand.</p><p>“Well, I <em> am </em> married to him.” Hizashi looked the kid up and down with a concerned eye, taking in the tense set of his shoulders and his slightly labored breathing. “But in all honesty- how are you doing?”</p><p>Aang rubbed his eyes with one hand, grimacing.</p><p>“I’ll be ok,” he said. “I’ve got to find the rest of the Spirit Nomu- they need to be sent home too, and this may be one of the only chances I get.”</p><p>“We’ll help if we can,” Hizashi forced himself to say, hating the fact that so much of this night’s work was falling to this kid. He tried a grin, jerking a thumb in Snipe’s direction, where the man was reloading his gun. “But do your best to stay in one piece, kiddo. Shouta’s probably going to kill Snipe here if anything happens to you.”</p><p><em> “Hey,” </em> said hero protested.</p><p>Aang grinned, and that’s what Hizashi had been after, easing his heartache a bit.</p><p>“Well, we can’t have anything happen to Snipe.”</p><p>“You’re darn <em> tootin’, </em> we can’t,” the man muttered, checking his ammo.</p><p>Aang’s laugh was a bright spot in this dark night. The kid took a few steps back, getting a running start to launch himself up onto the closest wall, getting a better look of the chaos still going down along the line. He toed along the top of the warped metal, spinning after a moment to face Hizashi and Snipe once more.</p><p>“Master Aizawa is down by the field and there’s-”</p><p>He didn’t get the chance to finish his statement.</p><p>The wall shattered inwards, flinging the kid from the top beam amongst the rubble and dust.</p><p>Hizashi covered his head with an arm, taking a wary step back with Snipe. He cast a worried look behind him- Aang seemed to be alright, he was already getting back to his feet.</p><p>But he looked… more than worried. Thinly disguised horror flickered in Aang’s eyes as he stared back at the thing that had just crashed through a wall of solid metal like it had been fine porcelain. </p><p>“Humans.” A bulky, person-shaped figure strode through the falling dust and mist, slits of white light serving as a beacon in the destruction. “The same worlds over.” Steps <em> clanked </em> as it moved forwards. <em> “Pathetic.” </em></p><p>A more identifiable pair of villains entered the space behind the speaker, a man in a black coat, stapled scars glittering in the minimal lighting, and a tall woman with a heavy metal pole rested carelessly over her shoulders. </p><p>“Magne,” that deep voice rumbled. “Dabi. Find them.”</p><p>The man tossed a lazy salute to the speaker and vanished moments after, his companion following in his footsteps.</p><p>Hizashi flicked up the volume setting on his speaker as unobtrusively as he could, taking a few slow steps back along with a tense Snipe and eyeing the newcomer. He had a feeling he’d need it.</p><p>“Now, as for <em> you.”  </em></p><p>Faster than Hizashi would have believed, the enormous villain charged forwards, arm outstretched and throwing reflections of light off of the metal armor he wore.</p><p>
  <em> Urk. </em>
</p><p>Hizashi had seen the blow coming and managed to throw himself far enough to the left to avoid the massive, iron-clad fist.</p><p>Snipe wasn’t so lucky.</p><p>The hero was knocked back like a tumbleweed in a particularly low budget cowboy flick.</p><p>Hizashi spun to his feet the moment he could, clamping a hand over his directional speaker and taking a deep breath.</p><p>His shout reverberated within the angled metal plates that covered the villain in a painful cacophony of sound. The massive figure wavered briefly, hands clasped in irritation over where ears should be under that jagged helmet, giving Hizashi enough time to scoop Snipe up and drag both of them behind cover in a return of the earlier favor.</p><p>There was a loud <em> crash </em> in the ensuing stillness. Hizashi glanced over the torn up rock that Aang had thrown at the Nomu earlier on in this fight. The helmet was split down the middle, and had been thrown to the ground, leaving their aggressor bare-headed. They had a moment to breathe.</p><p>Hizashi turned back to Snipe and helped him into a sitting position, frowning when the man let out a grunt of pain at the movement.</p><p><em> “Fuck, </em> that was my ribs,” Snipe hissed, the sound coming out metallic through his mask. Hizashi winced in combined sympathy and worry; Snipe didn’t usually swear, meaning this particular injury must hurt like a <em> bitch.  </em></p><p>“Don’t give me that look.” Snipe chuckled breathlessly, slotting a new clip into his gun. “I don’t need to stand to shoot. Just cover me.”</p><p>“You got it, pardner,” Hizashi muttered, patting him on the serape-clad shoulder before turning back to the new enemy player on the map.</p><p>There was no one else this person could be but General Old Iron himself.</p><p>He was <em> enormous, </em>towering over the battlefield and all those on it, easily reaching heights that normally only those with gigantification quirks could claim. Ruby red skin glittered in the dark, his form glowing with a bloody light that dissipated into the air. Strong, stern features scanned the area, the thick beard and lines of his trailing topknot making him look like a samurai of old, an illusion only strengthened by the heavy, dark armor in slate grey and dull greens that lent an intimidating air to his already imposing frame.</p><p>The slits of light turned out to be his eyes, and they scanned the people in front of him with thinly veiled disdain. Hizashi wasn’t sure whether to be insulted or relieved as he was quickly dismissed, the General broadening his search to the surrounding area.</p><p>“I know you’re here, Avatar.” The spirit clasped his hands behind his back, assuming a position of parade rest that did nothing to lessen his intimidating presence. “Running like the <em> child </em> you are.”</p><p>There was only silence, and quiet breathing as the heroes waited for the spirit’s next move.</p><p>“The Spirit Nomu are here for more than you, you know.” The General started to walk, still searching for his target. “You have a girl that Shigaraki is interested in. Human nonsense, but I indulge him.” He shrugged, casual, knowing. “What they do with these spirit forms is of no concern to me. They can burn this place to the ground for all I care.”</p><p>Ohhhhh, Hizashi had a <em> horrible </em>feeling that he knew where this was going.</p><p>“You have a choice, Avatar. Hide behind your friends again, and watch them die at the hands of twisted spirits <em> you </em> failed, or come with me.” The third eye in the middle of the General’s forehead flared with light, piercing and calculating. “You said you wanted to be the Balance, once.” His brows drew together in a thunderous expression before turning away once more. <em> “Prove it.” </em></p><p>The spirit strode back through the destroyed wall, disappearing with disconcerting ease into the darkness once more.</p><p>Hizashi quickly cast his gaze around the area, looking for the teenager in question.</p><p>He was nowhere to be seen.</p><p>
  <em> “Shit.”  </em>
</p><hr/><p>Aang could barely feel the ground under his feet as he ran.</p><p>His lungs burned. Blood roared in his ears. He was exhausted, off-kilter, and shaky.</p><p>But none of that mattered.</p><p>Because...</p><p>He… he was going to kill them.</p><p>All because of <em> him. </em></p><p>Aang wavered on his feet, torn.</p><p>He had to <em> stop this. </em> He could stop this. If he went with them like they demanded, would they stop?</p><p>Would that be enough?</p><p>…</p><p>Was <em> he </em> enough?</p><hr/><p>Shouta was man enough to admit that he took more than a little vindictive pleasure in stomping Compress into the ground.</p><p>Kidnap <em> his </em> students, would you.</p><p>Thirteen had given him a cheerful wave of thanks before turning back to their immediate job of containing the nearest Spirit Nomu.</p><p>An enormous explosion followed immediately by a red-level scream from Hizashi snapped his head around in tightly-contained concern and saw Shouta moving as quickly as he could for that part of the campus battlefield. He was <em> not </em> losing anyone tonight.</p><p>He was saved by his gut reaction and years of instinct as something caught the corner of his eye. Shouta threw himself sideways as familiar flames scorched the grass he’d been standing on not moments before, coming back up to his feet after a swift roll, capture weapon already fanning out over his shoulders.</p><p>The scarred, easily recognizable face of Dabi grinned at him from the other side of the wall of flames.</p><p>“Back for round three?”</p><p>Shouta didn’t have <em> time for this.  </em></p><p>Blue fire lit up his vision and he snarled silently, pulling on the other man’s quirk with Erasure to snuff the inferno before it could even start. A snap of his wrist sent his scarf to the nearest hold available and he launched himself off the ground after a quick few steps, taking him above the smoldering detritus beneath the pair of them.</p><p>Dabi twisted to face him the moment he landed, palms extended and already sparking with his quirk again. Shouta surged forwards, ducking underneath the outstretched hand to plant an elbow directly into the man’s solar plexus.</p><p>The strangled huff of pain that ensued gave him the space to drop his shoulder and slam the other man into the ground in an aggressive takedown.</p><p>Dabi recovered for the briefest of moments, his blue glare flicking upwards to Shouta on top of him, and he could smell sulfur and ash as the villain tried to push himself back up-</p><p>Shouta punched him in the jaw, feeling his knuckles crunch from the impact.</p><p>
  <em> Thwock. </em>
</p><p>“Huh,” Shouta muttered. He squinted down at the prone villain, who didn’t look like he was going to be getting up anytime soon. “Not a copy this time.”</p><p>He got to his feet and rotated his much-abused arm with an internal grimace, disdaining the unconscious man on the ground as he scanned the rest of the area for other threats. </p><p>Visibility was still low because of the night’s weather, but he could hear Hizashi’s yells echoing out in the distance. He could only see one Nomu at the moment though, swatting at some of Ectoplasm’s Clones as they flitted around it.</p><p>“Master Aizawa!”</p><p>Aang arrived in a flurry of cloth and crackling tension. He just barely skidded to a halt in front of him, unbalanced enough that Shouta had to grab his shoulder to halt his forwards momentum.</p><p>The kid glanced up at him with wide, frantic eyes and Shouta was struck with a strange sense of familiarity.</p><p>“The General,” Aang managed to blurt out, shoulders shaking with nerves and his harsh breathing. “He wants me to give myself up. He said he’d stop the attack if I did.”</p><p>Ice shuddered through Shouta’s chest at the words.</p><p><em> “Absolutely not,” </em> he said, barely managing to keep his own frayed emotions in check. “We are <em> not </em> going to hand you over, Aang. Ok? Look at me,” he commanded, seeing the teen’s head droop between his shoulders. Aang looked up once more, face schooled in a blank expression. “You are <em> just as important </em> as everyone else here.”</p><p>The teen scrubbed his face, taking a shaky breath.</p><p>“Ok,” he finally said, voice very small. “Yeah, ok.” He straightened up, sucking in another deep breath and blowing it out, calming slightly. He closed his eyes before opening them again, a new determination in them.</p><p>Aang took a step back and nodded tightly to Shouta, clearly having come to a decision. He turned to look back out at the battle, at the Nomu, and the mist, and the General, who was still out there.</p><p>“I’m going to use the Avatar State.”</p><p>Shouta swallowed.</p><p>“Are you sure?”</p><p>“Yes.” Aang looked back to him and flashed the smallest smile, worried and strained, but still there. “I’m done sacrificing myself. I’m going to end this on my own terms.”</p><p>There were a few seconds of solemn silence. A moment of peace, even with the world in turmoil around them.</p><p>“For what it’s worth,” Shouta finally managed to say, his voice coming out rough and quiet. “I’m proud of you, kid.”</p><p>Aang stared at him for a beat, and the next moment Shouta had an armful of teenager as a pair of arms were thrown around him in a tight hug.</p><p>He stiffened in surprise before relaxing into the embrace, letting one of his hands come to rest on the back of the kid’s neck, the other on his back.</p><p>“I’m really glad I met you,” he heard spoken quietly, the words slightly muffled by the fabric of his hero costume.</p><p>Shouta rested his chin on Aang’s head, blinking rapidly.</p><p>“Me too, kid.”</p><p>Aang broke the embrace after a few more seconds, flashing a small smile at him. He turned back to the world once more, stepping away from Shouta.</p><p>Aang took a deep breath and his shoulders went back, determined.</p><p>It had already been a windy night, but what had come before was <em> nothing </em> in comparison to the gusts that began to whip around the teen.</p><p>Energy <em> hummed </em>through the air. It rattled in Shouta’s chest, vibrating down to his bones, like standing too close to Hizashi when he was using his quirk. Even from where he stood, he could see the blue light begin to permeate the fog around them, thickening and swelling as the wind grew only louder.</p><p>Earth crumbled and broke under Aang’s feet as they left the ground, rising up into air.</p><p>His arms went <em> wide-  </em></p><p>And it was like the rest of the world stood still.</p><hr/><p>Waiting was the most irritating part.</p><p>He was <em> here, </em> at UA! On the soil that the so-called former Symbol of Peace taught those shitty little extras. But nooooo, he’d agreed to play this one by the General’s terms.</p><p>Shigaraki slumped, drumming his fingers on the tree next to him. It dusted a moment later and he carelessly brushed his hands off.</p><p>A beacon of light went up into the sky.</p><p>Then another.</p><p>And yet another.</p><p>“Fucking finally,” Shigaraki grumbled. “Kurogiri, where’s the rest of the crew?”</p><p>“Toga and Magne are on the middle ground,” the man dutifully replied. “Dabi and Compress are out of contact. Twice is still with the General.”</p><p>“And the Nomu?”</p><p>“The Avatar has destroyed the four we committed to this attack.”</p><p><em> “Ugh.” </em> Shigaraki brightened a second later. “Oh, look, there's Magne.”</p><p>And there was that OP little shit the General and Zhao were so obsessed with. </p><p>The kid was a storm of his own making, elements curling around him with unfair ease. The three on the hill could feel the ripples of energy from hear, blowing hair and clothes alike.</p><p>Magne stood her ground, trusty pole lighting up with her quirk’s glow.</p><p>Not that it made a difference.</p><p>The Avatar kid buried her in a matter of seconds. The ground shook with the rumble of moving earth, rising up with terrifying swiftness to pin her upright in a mockery of a coffin. He could hear her swearing from here, everything but her head trapped in unforgiving stone.</p><p>The kid whipped around then, searching for more enemies. He didn’t see anyone, and slowly, the blue leeched away from him, gently coming to a rest on the ground. He bent over, hands on his knees, clearly exhausted.</p><p>He was alone.</p><p>“Shigaraki Tomura,” Kurogiri said urgently. “It’s time.”</p><p>Shigaraki gritted his teeth, scratching furiously at the side of his neck.</p><p>“Fine,” he finally hissed. Red, bloodshot eyes flicked over to Iwayama. “You’re up, Boil. Don’t fuck this up.”</p><p>Iwayama grinned, spectral flames wreathing his face as Zhao appeared.</p><p>
  <em> “Finally.” </em>
</p><hr/><p>Aang's feet touched down gently on the grass beneath him and he staggered, a swell of exhaustion rising up as the glittering energy of the Avatar State sank back into his ki. He took a moment to find his breath.</p><p>When he could breathe a little easier, he straightened up best he could, hugging himself a bit as tremors wracked his body. He hadn’t used that much of the Avatar State… well, he didn’t know if he’d <em> ever </em> called on it that much in one situation.</p><p>But he’d done enough, right? He spared a glance for the villain he’d trapped in rock, still struggling and growling as her efforts got her nowhere.</p><p>A familiar person in black and white entered his field of vision and he blinked, relief coursing through him as he recognized Master Aizawa on the other side of the field. It looked like he’d run after him after dealing with the situation on the middle ground. The teacher paused, catching sight of Aang where he stood at the base of the wooded hill that marked the outskirts of UA’s campus, behind most of the training fields.</p><p>He managed a tired grin, meeting Master Aizawa’s gaze across the long expanse of ripped up grass and earth.</p><p>The teacher relaxed upon seeing him. The corner of his mouth tilted upwards in his own version of a smile, softening his entire visage. </p><p>Aang breathed out.</p><p>But then-</p><p>Something in Master Aizawa’s expression turned dark and frantic, his eyes going wide as he started forwards with a frisson of urgency in his bearing. Aang glanced off to the side in confusion, looking for what he’d seen and-</p><p>The unexpected icy prick of a needle met his neck.</p><p>Aang stumbled, his hand rising instinctively to cover that area, but no, his limbs were too slow to respond as a strong hand grabbed that wrist and twisted it into the small of his back, and another tightened around his throat to cut off his strangled gasp of surprise-</p><p>Something spread through his body as he desperately tried to breathe, bringing a freezing numbness with it and his mind grew foggy and dark as his eyelids fluttered shut-</p><p>His body betrayed him, limp, helpless, and he felt himself being carried, swimming in an inky, swirling blackness-</p><p>And then he was falling.</p><p>In the moment before his entire world faded, he thought he could hear someone screaming his name.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0024"><h2>24. Just Kidding</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I have too much fun with chapter titles and no shame</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Grief wasn’t a linear thing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Katara knew that.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She had mourned her mother, her foremothers, her sisters of the Southern Water Tribe countless times over. Every step, every stitch in her winter coat, every pin in her braids, every pull of water, every reflection of frost, was a reminder of everything she’d lost.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But she was a child of the ocean and a sister to the moon and she had been carved by the ice and tempered by the darkness of her home. Her blood was hot and her teeth were hunter sharp and she’d weathered every storm thrown her way for the people she loved.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She would </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> mourn Aang as well.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And so Katara stood her ground and bared her teeth and faced down Wan Shi Tong with grief and fury and the support of her friends, there in the dusty library they’d visited once before.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Where. Is.</span>
  <em>
    <span> Aang?” </span>
  </em>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>There were some days when Naomasa </span>
  <em>
    <span>really</span>
  </em>
  <span> hated his job.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Most days, he wouldn’t trade it for anything. He’d dragged himself through the police academy fueled almost solely by caffeine and spite, hidden behind a carefully bland smile. His quirk was useful only in very specific situations, he was told, so he needed to hone other skills.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He did so. Crafted his own image. Friendly, helpful. Plain, unassuming.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Not hero material. Someone who faded into the background.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His choice had puzzled some of his friends when he was younger.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Because </span>
  <em>
    <span>everyone </span>
  </em>
  <span>wanted to be a hero.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Who wouldn’t? It paid well, it got media attention, endorsements, prestige, everything a young aspiring hopeful could want.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>No one wanted to do the dirty work behind the scenes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Thus the police force wasn’t exactly, er, </span>
  <em>
    <span>brimming</span>
  </em>
  <span> with new candidates.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Which honestly, was the way Naomasa liked it. He had his team, his people that he trusted with his life, and any people who weren’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>completely</span>
  </em>
  <span> devoted to helping others in any way they could tended to get quickly weeded out.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>(Which wasn’t always the case in the Hero profession, but that was a grievance for another time.)</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Because currently, Naomasa had to help clean up the third attack on UA this year. And it was a… more difficult and somber process than usual.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The League had taken Aang. The property damage and the injuries sustained by the pro hero teachers weren’t too bad, all things considered. Some students had been caught in the crossfire, but ended up unharmed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>No, Aang was the only real loss.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Naomasa had failed him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>… he didn’t know if it was a blessing or a curse that they didn’t have any parents to break the news to. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Naomasa glanced over to Eraserhead, who was quietly talking to Present Mic, a stormy look on his already grim face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>After all, every adult that cared was already here.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Two villains had ended up being arrested after the attack on UA: Dabi and Compress. Eraserhead had been responsible for both, actually. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Naomasa almost felt sorry for the two of them. Eraserhead had been… lets say </span>
  <em>
    <span>particularly irritated</span>
  </em>
  <span> with the League of Villains even </span>
  <em>
    <span>before</span>
  </em>
  <span> they’d decided to attack that night.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His gaze flicked down to the screen of his open laptop, listing the casualties of the attack in plain, impersonal words.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Almost.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kurogiri, the villain with the warp quirk, made a very efficient getaway car. Eraserhead had been the last one to see Aang, on the far west side of campus. The warp gate had opened behind him, taking both Magne and Aang with it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It was Boil,” Eraserhead had said in the debriefing, voice flat and lifeless. “He waved at me.” He looked away, stone-faced. “He wanted to make this personal.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And based on the way the Underground Pro had been acting for the last day and a half, it was.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eraserhead looked half dead on his feet, but Naomasa didn’t have the heart to tell him to go home.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Or the energy, honestly. It would be a full ordeal.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>May as well put him to use.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Eraserhead,” he called out, picking up his file. “We have an interrogation room set up. I could use your assistance for the process. Keep the prisoner under control.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Dark, angry eyes narrowed, and the man nodded. Present Mic unobtrusively squeezed his hand, before letting go and moving to the other room and the security feeds Sansa was reviewing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Naomasa led the way, opening the door and letting him enter first.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They both settled in, three pairs of eyes meeting; black and amber versus blazing, fiery blue.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eraserhead leaned over the table and stared down an impassive Dabi, his eyes flashing furious red and his hair floating around his face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“Where is Aang?” </span>
  </em>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>Class had been canceled.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That was ok. No one was really focused on school right now, anyways.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I </span>
  <em>
    <span>know</span>
  </em>
  <span> none of us could have done anything!” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shinsou actually leaned back as Izuku snapped those words, shock and concern flitting across his face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku swallowed hard, pressing a hand to his forehead and trying to ignore that worried looks his friends were giving him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m sorry guys,” he said softly. “I’m just… I’m really tired. Of all of this.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Iida hesitantly rested a hand on his shoulder.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We have to have faith in our teachers and the police force,” he said, subdued. “They </span>
  <em>
    <span>will</span>
  </em>
  <span> find Aang. And Aang himself has shown that he is more than competent when it comes to protecting himself.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He’s… he’s our friend.” Everyone looked to Uraraka as she said this, wiping dampness away from her eyes. “And yeah, it hurts that we lost one again. I want to help but I don’t know </span>
  <em>
    <span>how.</span>
  </em>
  <span>”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We can’t go after him ourselves,” Kirishima said glumly, not looking up from where he was sitting on the couch. “That’s just a bad idea. Again,” he admitted, wincing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The class stayed quiet, solemn and heavy-hearted and wondering the same thing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang, where are you?</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>Himiko couldn’t resist a few twirls as she walked, pleased with the movement of her new skirt.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She felt so </span>
  <em>
    <span>pretty!</span>
  </em>
  <span> Which was just as well, because she had a date.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And she knew for a fact that there was no way she could get stood up!</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>(Even though </span>
  <em>
    <span>yes,</span>
  </em>
  <span> technically she was carrying out her part in the grand plan Shigaraki was setting up, but pssh. Don’t spoil her fun.)</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The cell had been repurposed from a warehouse storeroom, small, enclosed, and suiting the needs fairly well. Himiko privately thought that they deserved a nicer base of operations, but all the Nomu stuff was here. Oh well.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang glanced up at her the moment the door opened, dropping his hands back onto his lap with a soft </span>
  <em>
    <span>clink. </span>
  </em>
  <span>He’d been pulling at the muzzle locked around the lower half of his face, exploring its metal surface and probably trying to get it unlocked. Himiko could sympathize. Muzzles were nasty- they tasted bad and made your jaw hurt and </span>
  <em>
    <span>uck.</span>
  </em>
  
</p>
<p>
  <span>The chains that attached both his wrist and ankle restraints to the wall behind him rattled softly as he shifted in a rather futile attempt to give himself more room to move. His hands stiffly flexed open and closed in the cuffs; they weren’t anything fancy, but they must have been uncomfortable.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Himiko dropped into a crouch, tilting her head.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hello,” she purred. “Nice and comfy?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It wasn’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>quite</span>
  </em>
  <span> a glare that got thrown back at her, but it was definitely on the more unhappy side of things. She just snickered, settling back on her heels. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We’ve never formally met!” She glanced back at the open door behind her before shrugging and ignoring it. “You can call me Himiko. And I already know who you are!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hmph. It just wasn’t as much </span>
  <em>
    <span>fun</span>
  </em>
  <span> when they couldn’t answer back. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Like it?” She leaned forwards to tap the front of his muzzle, prompting him to flinch back out of her reach with wary eyes. “It’s sad we don’t get to hear your pretty voice, but the General said it was important. Something about the special way you breathe. So no escaping for you!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Unable to respond, he simply looked away, shoulders hunched.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What?” she couldn’t help but tease. “Cat got your tongue?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>No reply. His gaze flicked towards her, and away again, growing more tense by the second.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Aww.” She pouted theatrically, leaning back on her haunches. “Does this mean you’re gonna be mad about the blood and the impersonating?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang looked at her fully once more, eyes widening in confusion and concern.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Himiko pounced on him before he had any time to react.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The scuffle wasn’t a lengthy one, considering she had the advantage of not being chained up or drugged. Still, it did take a significant amount of effort on her part to pin him down. She managed after a moment, straddling him and slamming his shoulders down on the cell floor. Aang jerked against the cuffs binding his hands, trying to push her off of him, so Himiko grabbed them and leaned forwards as much as she could in this position, forcing his hands down until she could trap them above his head.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He looked good like this, Himiko decided. Squirming underneath her, a scared look in his dazed, glassy eyes. Maybe not as cute as little Izuku… but she was patient. She could make do.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Pretty little birdy…” she cooed. “We clipped your wings, didn’t we?” She dragged a slow finger down his chest, enjoying how his breath hitched with every inch she traveled. She dug in harder with her nail, scratching through his shirt and he flinched, a muffled squeak filtering through the muzzle. Satisfied, she leaned off the pressure a bit, unclipping her syringe from behind her back.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Mr. Boil hit you with a pretty nasty dose there. Took </span>
  <em>
    <span>ages</span>
  </em>
  <span> for you to wake up. But I couldn’t get my blood until you did- didn’t want any of that yucky stuff getting in the way.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Himiko flipped the needle into its open position, aiming quickly for the main artery in the thigh. A more audible yelp was drawn from that as she stabbed deep into his leg, his entire body seizing up instinctively from the sudden pain.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Himiko </span>
  <em>
    <span>tsk</span>
  </em>
  <span>ed, putting her body weight on the arm she was using to keep his cuffs pinned down. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Stay </span>
  <em>
    <span>still</span>
  </em>
  <span> for me, birdy. It’ll just take a moment.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He stared up at her with wide eyes, fear and bewilderment painting stark, tense lines down his form. Fingers clenched reflexively from where his hands were bound, unable to get any leverage to force her off of him in their respective positions. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She grinned at the sight of it, running her tongue over one of her canines absentmindedly. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You have such pretty blood,” Himiko crooned, taking her hand briefly off the syringe doing its job to caress the side of the teenager’s face, where a cut from earlier had dried and scabbed over. “So bright. I bet it will taste </span>
  <em>
    <span>delicious.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He yanked his head to the side, out of her grasp. She pouted, leaning closer.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I wouldn’t play hard to get,” she murmured. “After all, the General’s plans are nasty, and Mr. Boil and his ghost get </span>
  <em>
    <span>awfully</span>
  </em>
  <span> mad when they think about you.” She dragged his chin up with her free hand, exposing his throat and forcing an actual strangled whimper out of him. “Himi is just here to have some fun. We can be </span>
  <em>
    <span>friends.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was her breath ghosting across his face that sparked his most desperate reaction yet. Something luminescent flared in his eyes for a split second before he </span>
  <em>
    <span>thrashed</span>
  </em>
  <span> against her hold. She jerked back, surprised, and that space gave him the opportunity to get a leg free, knee up, and </span>
  <em>
    <span>shove</span>
  </em>
  <span> her off of him. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Himiko snatched her syringe back, the clear hose already filled with enough blood for one or more of her transformations. Aang skittered backwards and away from her in the same instant to press his back to the wall, breath coming in short pants as he struggled to breathe behind his muzzle.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You’re very </span>
  <em>
    <span>rude,</span>
  </em>
  <span> little birdy,” she scolded, taking careful note of the way a mingling of frost and sparks had flared out from him in their last scuffle. She could smell ozone, vanishing into the air just as quickly as it had appeared.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He just brought his hands up in front of his body protectively in response, cuffed together as they were. His eyes narrowed into more of a glare that he threw in her direction, mingled fear and pain darkening it enough that it bordered on feral.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Himiko clicked her tongue, returning her syringe to its holster.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Have it your way.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She climbed to her feet, smoothing her ruffled skirt in a dainty fashion.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“They’ll be back in here before too long,” she remarked, watching for his reactions. “Turns out the General hasn’t perfected the spooky spirit machine yet.” She wiggled her fingers playfully in his direction. Aang tilted his chin up to keep her in view, looking confused and slightly dizzy more than anything else. “Good news, though! He needs you alive.” Himiko tapped her lips, grinning. “So we get more time together before things start moving.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She left him there, in the dark, closing the door behind her with a decisive click.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>What </span>
  <em>
    <span>fun! </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She skipped back down the hallway, turning her syringe over in her hands and musing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He was cute when he was scared.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>She hoped Mr. Boil wouldn’t break him too much.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0025"><h2>25. Fear Leads To Anger, To Hate, To Suffering</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>boy am I glad I get to post this in whumptober</p><p>please do not murder me</p><p>Edit: content warning for this chapter- it’s torture, and it’s not nice, so if you’d rather not read it, the worst of it starts at “Avatar Aang. Your attention, if you please.” And ends at “I win, Eraserhead.”</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The world was still kind of foggy all around him. </p><p>They’d given him something again and whatever it was, it made it hard to focus. With his hands bound and his breathing restricted on top of that, his bending slipped through his fingers time and time again, just barely out of reach. </p><p>How long had it been? Without a point of reference to the sun, he had no clue. The room they’d been keeping him in didn’t have windows.</p><p>Aang had been imprisoned before, sure.</p><p>But this time was… worse.</p><p>He didn’t even know <em> why </em> he was being kept here. He’d thought General Old Iron had wanted to kill him. So why hadn’t he?</p><p>Is that how he got Zhao on his side? By promising… he didn’t know, the opportunity to deal the final blow?</p><p>With nothing but the chains, the walls, and his thoughts, his ponderings took on a dark tone very quickly.</p><p>At some point he was more lucid than he’d been in a while, enough to actually pay attention to the world around him.</p><p>He was no longer alone.</p><p>Aang shook his head, trying to disperse some of the fog and flinched automatically as the figure of Iwayama loomed over him, the minimal lighting from the hall streaming in behind him in jagged splashes of color.</p><p>The man knelt on one knee, his face impassive, and started working on the two chains attached to the wall; taking out a small key to unlock the pair of them. They fell free after a moment, clanking against the floor.</p><p>Aang pushed himself backwards, trying to get some space. Iwayama simply rolled his eyes and grabbed him by the shoulder, rising back to his feet.</p><p>Aang could have struggled. He wanted to. He wanted to fight this, every step of the way.</p><p>But Iwayama was stronger than him on a normal day, and at the moment he could barely even stand under his own power.</p><p>The man began walking, pulling Aang along with him, back down the hallway. The painfully tight grip on his upper arm was a clear message: walk, or be dragged.</p><p>The light changed from dull to brighter, passing by various open doors to other rooms before settling on one in particular.</p><p>Small room, bright light. A table. A box with a blank screen sitting on it.</p><p>He felt the back of his knees hit the table as Iwayama pushed him forwards, stumbling sideways into a seat on top of the low surface. </p><p>The man was clearly on a mission, as he grabbed Aang’s wrists a moment later, dragging him up. He fiddled with the lock for a moment. There was a soft clicking sound as the manacles fell open, to be carelessly discarded directly after.</p><p>Aang jerked instinctively once his hands were free, but the static behind his eyes overpowered any resistance he was capable of putting up at the moment. Iwayama easily grabbed his left wrist as he struck out, forcing it down with bruising strength until the man could buckle a leather cuff around it tightly enough to stop him from moving that arm.</p><p>Aang felt his head slump onto his shoulder, a bone-deep exhaustion returning with full force. He drifted for a few seconds, barely registering the feeling of his other wrist and ankles receiving the same treatment. The faint metallic clinking sounded much louder than it should have been, locking him into this situation with a tone of dreadful finality. </p><p>“Avatar Aang. Your attention, if you please.”</p><p>Aang blinked rapidly, the world sharpening once again at the sound of that familiar voice.</p><p>He was flat on his back and he instinctively struggled for a moment, fists clenching where they were bound to the table by his sides. A choking feeling crept up his throat and he desperately tried to breathe, still unable to speak or cough or really even <em> draw breath </em> with the muzzle clamped over his jaw.</p><p>He panicked for a moment, seizing up. A hand threaded behind his head and he flinched, eyes flicking up to see Iwayama- no, it was Zhao right now- standing over him, a calm expression on his face. The man held his gaze for a few seconds, letting his panic run its course until Aang could focus once more, feeling the leather of the cuffs and the wood of the table, the metal of the bit between his teeth and the rough fingers of Iwayama’s hand on the back of his neck.</p><p>Zhao unfastened the muzzle, finally slipping the awful thing off his face and Aang instinctively drew in a deep breath, lightheaded at the simple, unhindered return of his first element to his lungs. </p><p>“Finished?” Zhao asked, dropping the muzzle on a different table behind him. </p><p>Aang just gritted his teeth and coughed a few times, trying to clear his lungs and settle his pounding heartbeat a bit.</p><p>“Now that I have your attention,” Zhao remarked conversationally, seemingly unconcerned by the lack of reply and turning his back to focus on a device beside him. “I can tell you about something I’ve found very interesting.” He was doing something with his hands that Aang couldn’t see from this angle. “My unfortunate trip into the Spirit World meant I missed much of your adventures, Avatar.” He tilted his head to look Aang in the eye, his free hand stroking his chin in a very Zhao-like gesture that looked strange on another man’s face. “But scars tell a story all of their own, don’t they?”</p><p>Aang licked dry lips, trying to find his voice after disuse.</p><p>“Scars?” He regretted speaking almost as soon as the hoarse word had left his mouth, because Zhao was fully focused on him once more, a familiar smile crossing unfamiliar features.</p><p>“Yours, specifically. I learned quite a bit.” He circled a slow finger around his sternum. “Not many can get struck with that much lightning and live to tell the tale.”</p><p>Aang had to bite down the tight, panicked feeling of violation at the thought of having been unconscious long enough with these people to have been scrutinized that closely. </p><p>And at the gleam in the other man’s eyes, his reaction did not go unnoticed. </p><p>“So,” Zhao continued. Like the two of them were old friends, trading stories. “Was it Ozai, then? Our dear Fire Lord always did favor the lightning techniques.”</p><p>Aang closed his eyes, the memory of sparks lighting up his thoughts.</p><p>“Azula, actually,” he rasped, seeing no reason to lie. Zhao would get what he wanted, one way or another. </p><p>“Oh, <em> interesting. </em> So he finally unleashed the prodigal child, did he?”</p><p>“...you could say that.”</p><p>“And where is she now?”</p><p>“In prison.”</p><p>“Pity.”</p><p>Zuko had been working on rehabilitating his sister in the last few years. She was… doing a lot better, honestly. Zuko hoped he’d be able to release her and have her come live in the palace with him within the next year or so.</p><p>Zhao probably wouldn’t care about any of that, though.</p><p>The man’s touch over his arms and chest made him flinch, tugging futilely on his restraints. Zhao ignored his instinctive reaction, just pushing up the short sleeve of his shirt to completely bare his left arm.</p><p>“W-what are you doing?”</p><p>“Have you ever heard of something called a taser?” Zhao asked by way of a response. “Interesting invention. It can make a lightning bender out of truly anyone.” He scrutinized a pair of thin wires in his hand, making sure they were sufficiently straight. “Iwayama was kind enough to make a few adjustments for me.”</p><p>The sharp little tines were pressed into the skin of his arm, making him wince. </p><p>“I had to lower the voltage for this particular stun gun.” Iwayama was back in control once more, calmly checking the mechanics in his other hand. He patted the side of Aang’s face condescendingly. “After all, he’s not allowed to <em> kill </em> you. That would defeat the purpose of… well, pretty much everything the General’s planning.”</p><p>Aang swallowed, mouth dry, eyeing the wires as Iwayama smoothed some thick black tape over them to keep them in place. </p><p>“What about Ozai himself?” Zhao asked, picking up something mechanical in black and yellow, and turning it over in his hands, adjusting a single dial. “I’m assuming he’s dead, since you appear to be alive at the moment.”</p><p>“He’s not.” Aang fought to keep his anger out of his voice. “He’s also in prison. Zuko is the Fire Lord.”</p><p>“Tch.” Zhao shook his head in disappointment, genuine or not, Aang couldn’t tell. “A true tragedy.”</p><p>With an almost inaudible clicking sound, he set the device down and flipped the switch.</p><p>White-hot, liquid agony.</p><p>It was like Azula or Ozai all over again, but he was completely <em> helpless </em>to the implacable rage of the lightning this time. Unable to move, unable to redirect its malignant flow, all he could do was grit his teeth and weather the storm.</p><p>Then it was over just as quickly as it began, leaving him weak and gasping.</p><p>There was a ringing sound in his ears and a low, soft, keening sound, like a wounded animal, and it took him a few stunned seconds to realize that it was <em> him. </em> </p><p>Aang tipped his head back and tried to breathe.</p><p>“That was quite unpleasant, wasn’t it?”</p><p>He glanced sideways to see Zhao, sitting in a chair and leaning nonchalantly on the table next to him.</p><p>Just watching.</p><p>And some things suddenly made sense.</p><p>“This is what… what you wanted, isn’t it?” </p><p>Zhao tilted his head at the bitter question, looking amused.</p><p>“Whatever do you mean?”</p><p>“This is why you came to follow the General. You… you just wanted to <em> hurt me.” </em></p><p>A larger grin split the man’s face and he waved a hand dismissively.</p><p>“We have more than just <em> this </em> in mind, trust me.”</p><p>“I <em> don’t,” </em> Aang managed to spit out, clinging to defiance to help distract himself as his hands shook and he tasted iron on his tongue. Zhao just chuckled, seemingly not phased at all.</p><p>“Not my problem.”</p><p>The lightning clicked back on.</p><p>Sparks.</p><p>Pain.</p><p>Off.</p><p>And Zhao, Iwayama, just sat there. That look on their face. Satisfaction, practically oozing from him as Aang struggled to find his breath, his center, even while his body trembled and spasmed from the aftershocks of pain.</p><p>“I am going to be honest.” That was Zhao’s voice, floating by. “I had my doubts. This world’s technology seemed so strange to me at first. But seeing this-” he leaned back, golden eyes flashing with gleeful, malevolent hunger. “Iwayama is right. Waiting for this was worth it.”</p><p>His gaze flicked off to the side, and Iwayama was back in that body, a different smile on his face.</p><p>“Of course I was right.” His voice was a stark change from Zhao’s deep, dignified tones, light and rough. “I’ve been doing this type of thing long before you and the General gave me the means to branch out.”</p><p><em> “This </em> is his plan?” Aang couldn’t help but hiss, pain roughening his voice. “He ripped open the world and killed <em>hundreds</em> of people, just so you could play Admiral again?”</p><p>“Ah, don’t be foolish. The General’s plan is much more involved than this. He simply gave me the opportunity to take what I deserved in preparation for his final act.”</p><p>The lines of Zhao’s spectral face were highlighted as the man grinned and suddenly Aang was twelve all over again, terrified and helpless. </p><p>The lightning flicked on once more and he couldn’t stop the strangled cry that was ripped from him this time as <em> agony </em> pooled in his veins because he was only sixteen now, and still helpless to the whims of this man and he was so very, very afraid.</p><p>The man spoke, and even through the sparks flashing behind his eyes as consciousness clung to him by a thread, he had no choice but to hear.</p><p>“Don’t worry, Avatar. I did say I’d keep you alive.” The smirk was just short of sinister, not that that did anything to assuage his dread as Zhao repeated his words from all those years ago. “Just barely, as promised.”</p><hr/><p>“He is not here.”</p><p>“We <em> know </em> Aang isn’t here,” Katara snapped, looking like she was thinking about bringing out the ice knives again. “We’re asking <em> you </em> where he is!”</p><p>The massive owl spirit made a huffy noise in face of her ire.</p><p>“I do not mean <em> in this library, </em> human. I mean <em> on this plane of existence.” </em></p><p>They all stared at Wan Shi Tong.</p><p>“As in, he’s in the Spirit World?” Sokka asked hesitantly. The spirit snorted, lowering his massive head to stare at him.</p><p>“If I meant <em> The Spirit World, </em> then I would have said, <em> The Spirit World. </em> What I said, was that the Avatar does not occupy a space in our universe at the moment. Rather problematic.”</p><p>“Do you know where he is or not?” Toph said impatiently, stamping her foot.</p><p>The owl spirit stared at all of them. They stared back.</p><p>Momo chittered.</p><p>Wan Shi Tong muttered something under his breath, sounding incredibly exasperated.</p><p><em> “Very well, </em> I’ll instruct one of my knowledge-seekers to lead you. Now get <em> out </em> of my <em> library.” </em></p><p>The nearest knowledge-seeker sighed.</p><hr/><p>Shouta rubbed his eyes.</p><p>The cheap coffee in its paper cup didn’t do much to chase away his exhaustion, bitter smell and all. He downed it nonetheless, grimacing slightly at the taste.</p><p>“It's not your fault,” Hizashi had told him. </p><p>But all Shouta could see when he closed his eyes was the shocked, desperate look on Aang’s face as he collapsed into Boil’s arms. The smile the killer had thrown in his direction. The nonchalant wave, as the black and purple of Kurogiri’s warp gate whisked them away before he had time to do much more than take a step in their direction.</p><p>It sure fucking <em> felt </em> like his fault.</p><p>Again.</p><p>His phone buzzed, breaking him out of his circle of thoughts as the notification banner showed up. Shouta blinked, flicking it unlocked.</p><p>Email. </p><p>Didn’t recognize the address.</p><p>Video.</p><p>Shouta felt his blood go cold.</p><p>A few minutes later, the chill had been chased away by low, simmering <em> fury. </em></p><p>He got to his feet, stalking back to the station’s conference room. </p><p>Both Tsukauchi and Hizashi both stared at him in bewilderment as he slammed the door open, interrupting whatever they were talking about. Shouta let his gaze flicker over to Nighteye, who simply looked back, unruffled by his abrupt entrance. </p><p>“Eraserhead.” Tsukauchi got to his feet, narrowing his eyes slightly as he took him in. “What do you have?”</p><p>Shouta pressed his lips together, not trusting himself to answer verbally and simply plugged his phone into the detective’s laptop, bringing up the video on the larger screen.</p><p>A fuzzy, dark few seconds flickered across the screen before brightening and clearing the picture.</p><p>And it was… </p><p>Shouta didn’t have a word for it.</p><p>Iwayama adjusted the camera on his end, before sitting back and smiling blandly at the viewers.</p><p>“I hope this gets to you at a good time,” the villain said lightly. “I tried to send it while you were awake. Not an easy task, mind you.”</p><p><em> “Shit,” </em> Shouta heard Hizashi hiss beside him. A moment later, his husband’s fingers threaded through his own, squeezing tight in support and comfort.</p><p>Iwayama pushed his chair to the side and cheerfully drummed his fingers on the table behind him.</p><p>The one Aang was laying on, silent and unmoving. Shackled to its surface with thick leather cuffs. Blood seeping down his wrists.</p><p>His chest moved in shallow breaths, signaling some form of life. But at the moment his eyes were closed, and it was difficult to tell if he was conscious or not.</p><p>There was blood on his face.</p><p>Hizashi gripped tighter.</p><p>“I didn’t have this planned, in all honesty.” Iwayama picked up a jury-rigged taser, it's tines already ejected, tilting it back and forth in the light. “But this was too good to pass up.”</p><p>He pulled the trigger.</p><p>Aang <em> spasmed. </em> </p><p>He made almost no sound; the only thing audible was a choked gasp as the electricity coursed through him, his fingers twitching in their cuffs.</p><p>Iwayama <em> tsk </em>ed.</p><p>“He was much livelier earlier, you know. Zhao has quite a grudge against him, did you know that? It’s almost poetic.”</p><p>The charge ran its duration after a mere few seconds, leaving Aang slumped against the table. The kid’s head lolled to the side, eyes hazy and unseeing as he fought to breathe through the pain.</p><p>“He screams <em> beautifully, </em> you know,” Iwayama continued. “Though it's a little late in the day for you to hear it. Maybe tomorrow.”</p><p>Tsukuachi’s face was dark, brow furrowed and his fist pressed to his lips. Nighteye showed less reaction, his face carefully flat and blank.</p><p>The video continued.</p><p>“You know,” Iwayama remarked. He ran a taunting finger along Aang’s jawline, prompting a weak flinch from the teen. “I thought I just wanted to kill you, Eraserhead. And don’t get me wrong; I still do.” His eyes flicked up to meet the camera once more, sulfurous and keen. “But I figured- if Zhao gets to have fun, why shouldn’t I?” He waved at Shouta, through the video, because the man had known he’d be watching this. “So this is <em> me </em>having fun. Enjoying the view?”</p><p>Shouta could feel his nails drawing blood in his clenched free hand, barely registering the faint sting that accompanied it.</p><p>“The General can do what he wants,” Iwayama said, shrugging. “So can the League. But for now, I am satisfied with having this.”</p><p>He curled his fingers thoughtfully, staring at the iridescent heat shimmering red over his fingertips. Carelessly, he reached over, casting a smile back over to the viewers before pressing three of them into Aang’s bare upper arm.</p><p>The teen jolted instantly, a strangled cry ripped from him at the sudden, no doubt agonizing branding. Iwayama only continued to smile blandly, letting him fight uselessly against his restraints. He pulled away after a few more seconds, leaving three angry, weeping burns seared into the flesh.</p><p>Aang’s head tipped back, his eyes screwed shut from the pain, and even through the screen they were viewing this on, Shouta could see the glittering tracks of tears where they slid down his face.</p><p>Boil and Zhao grinned with the same face, blazing red and bronze.</p><p>“I win, Eraserhead.”</p><p>And the screen went black.</p><p>The room was silent.</p><p>Tsukauchi pushed himself back from the table and rubbed his eyes.</p><p><em> “Damn,” </em> he said gruffly.</p><p>“That man is unstable,” Nighteye quietly said in apparent agreement. “We should prepare for more eventualities.”</p><p>Shouta blinked.</p><p>The only thing he could focus on, echoing in his ears, was that awful, pitiful keen of someone too tired to even scream.</p><p>“What do you want to do?” Tsukauchi asked him carefully, looking up to where he stood, frozen. “It came through your school email, right? That’s not exactly a technology breach- anyone with a basic knowledge of UA should have been able to access it.”</p><p>He was treading carefully around his words, not sure where anger would erupt.</p><p>But Shouta was so far past furious that he’d circled back around to cold, steady calculation. </p><p>“He…” Shouta gritted his teeth, forcing himself to say these words. “Iwayama sent this to me because he wanted to hurt me.” <em>And he succeeded. </em>“But he also just gave us a <em>link</em> <em>to where they are.”</em></p><p>And even through all the rage and pain, there was a sliver of hope.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0026"><h2>26. Raising the Stakes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>So wow, I just broke 100k words<br/>that is absolutely BAZONKERS to me<br/>thanks everyone for sticking around!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Aang drifted.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Time was… vague.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Zhao, sometimes Iwayama, came and went as he pleased, bringing lightning and fire in his wake.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It hurt.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But that had stopped mattering a while ago.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There were only brief flashes of consciousness now, blurring the edges of reality as they appeared.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Zhao, grinning garishly with water-rotted skin and bleeding eyes, the pale white and purple of the drowned, but in the next second it was Katara, desperately clutching her throat as salt water spilled from her lungs.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A gentle hand, one belonging to Toga, as she hummed and wiped his bloody wrists clean with a damp washcloth before wrapping bandages around them and patting his shoulder, an odd look of pity on her face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Todoroki, slowly swirling through Dragon’s Dance with hands ablaze, and as he turned, he melted into Zuko, hand reaching out to him and a worried look on his face before his own flames consumed him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kurogiri, lifting his head and bidding him to drink water, cold and clear.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Get </span>
  <em>
    <span>up,</span>
  </em>
  <span> Twinkletoes,” Toph snapped, her narrowed eyes slit-pupiled and golden. “What are you waiting for?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A clear cylinder of glass, settled next to his table, swirling silver.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya with his quirk enveloping his limbs, sparking green, his eyes blank. The sparks flashed golden as Kaminari tilted his head, before blue lightning lit up his vision once more and Azula caressed the side of his face, crooning low and terrifyingly clear.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You couldn’t escape me after all, Avatar,” she whispered. A sharp nail dragged across his cheek, and he could feel blood trickle down his face once more. “How does my lightning feel?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The General, leaning over him, impassive, eyes of white fire glowing bloody red.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“This is as much mercy as you deserve,” the ancient spirit told him, strangely calm. “It will be over soon.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His hands were numb where they lay, and he was so, so cold.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Something was over his nose and mouth, and drawing in breath from there tasted sweet and sickly, and it made him dizzy and dull, unable to move or even think.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The General, setting something aside.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But he could only stare upwards, bright lights burning into his vision and wiping out almost everything else.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Pinpricks of pain, scattered across his chest.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A long, silver knife, attached to a cord.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The General spoke.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I thought, once, that humans and spirits could share the world together. Our world.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Quiet.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Tienhai and I were happy, you know. Before the Harmonic Convergence, before the Material and Spirit Worlds broke apart. But over the millennium, all I have seen from humans, from you, the Avatar… is misery. Pain. You bring </span>
  <em>
    <span>war</span>
  </em>
  <span> and </span>
  <em>
    <span>suffering</span>
  </em>
  <span> to each other, with no regards for the consequences.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A cool hand, much too cold, brushing the side of his face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I do not enjoy this work. I do it because I must. To </span>
  <em>
    <span>save</span>
  </em>
  <span> my people, to save the spirits of my world, and to end the corruption I have found in these humans in this one. Because the power you wield, our oldest companion, shouldn’t remain </span>
  <em>
    <span>imprisoned</span>
  </em>
  <span> within flesh and bone. I will free us all.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A searing line across his chest.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Pressure.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Goodbye, Avatar. This is the end of an era. And the end, of you.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Freezing cold.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Agony.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The Avatar screamed with hundreds of voices all at once as their ki </span>
  <em>
    <span>shattered,</span>
  </em>
  <span> shards of light and splinters of spirit blinding them as they cried out-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And then-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Then-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Nothing.</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>“It’s about time,” Kurogiri heard Iwayama scoff as he passed by. “I thought you’d never get around to it.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“My plans have remained the same since the first day on this plane, </span>
  <em>
    <span>human,”</span>
  </em>
  <span> the General returned. “I simply needed time. Your passenger should know as much.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I do, and I’m quite grateful, believe me.” That was Zhao, speaking up. “It was… a most satisfying experience.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hmm.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kurogiri paused at the doorway, taking in the sight.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The General was mostly human-sized at the moment, for convenience's sake. And as he turned his hands over, inspecting them with a bemused sort of awe, Kurogiri could understand why.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The spirit shone with a new light.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The blue-white quintessence that Kurogiri had come to associate with Aang, upon seeing it several times, now wreathed the General’s form.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He spared a glance for the boy himself, still lying motionless on the table. Aang’s chest rose and fell faintly, his face pale and drawn, bruise-dark shadows around his closed eyes. He looked…</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Well.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Like he’d been tortured.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But he was still alive.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kurogiri mentally paused, trying to figure out why that knowledge brought him so much relief.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His thoughts had been… different, without All for One and their constant conversations. The man had kept him focused, single-minded, with no room for other worries. Now, he was still focused on keeping Shigaraki safe and protecting him and-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And what?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kurogiri glanced behind him to the main room of the warehouse, where Shigaraki was arguing about something with Spinner, arms crossed sulkily. His charge of many years. He was planning to take what remained of the League and attempt to free Dabi and Compress before they were moved to a more secure prison.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A rare show of… not quite compassion. Shigaraki didn’t quite do compassion.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Obligation, perhaps.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>...</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>What was he forgetting?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Why had he never questioned his conversations with All for One?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>...why didn’t he remember </span>
  <em>
    <span>why? </span>
  </em>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>“Nighteye and his team are going to the warehouse.” Detective Tsukauchi tapped the map, drawing a circle on screen with his finger. “Fat Gum’s team and Ryukyu’s team are going here and here.” He indicated two more places. “My police force is securing the perimeter with help from Eraserhead’s team.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Given the size of the General, our quirks are best suited for large scale fighting and avoidance,” Ryukyu said, resting her hands on both Uraraka and Nejire’s shoulders.  “While Fat Gum’s team is more adaptable to what we know of the League’s quirks.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We’re not bringing in any more heroes?” Kirishima asked hesitantly, his hand half-raised like he couldn’t decide whether to commit to the action or not.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“More isn’t always better,” Sir Nighteye pointed out, crossing his arms. “And while we would benefit from, say, Hawks and his ability to control the aerial battlefield, we can’t afford to let this matter spread any further than it already has. We already have one hostage- we don’t want to open up room for more.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hitoshi drummed his fingers on his arm guard as the quiet, serious discussion continued, trying not to blatantly broadcast his nerves to a group of heroes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Do you know how they found out where the League is hiding?” he murmured in an aside to Midoriya, who was standing next to him and worrying at the fabric of his gloves.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya’s brow furrowed slightly, glancing towards him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“As far as I know, Aizawa-sensei got an email,” he returned quietly. “They probably back-traced the server and triangulated a location from that.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hitoshi’s eyes flicked over to their teacher, and the icily frozen expression he’d been holding for the past day.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Oh.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hitoshi tried not to grind his teeth together. The soft touch on his arm just about startled him out of his skin, and he glanced back at Midoriya with a questioning look.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He’ll be ok,” Midoriya said decisively, his eyes determined. “He has to be.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I didn’t-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You didn’t have to.” Midoriya smiled, though it was small and sadder than his usual one. “I’m worried about Aang too.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What about the Nomu?” Present Mic brought up, interrupting Hitoshi’s thought process. “There were four of them at UA, and that was enough to pose a </span>
  <em>
    <span>serious</span>
  </em>
  <span> threat.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We are fairly certain that they only have perhaps three more.” Nighteye gestured to the map. “Based on the amount of time it seemed to take for them to construct the first one, even if they perfected the process, it's unlikely that they had the time or materials to create more than eight at one time.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Even if they have, this is a rescue mission, first and foremost.” The room looked to Aizawa as he spoke, his voice flat and intense even for him. “The outside teams have enough space to retreat if necessary, and we’ll have the perimeter secured by the time we engage.” Dark eyes flicked to Sir Nighteye. “It’s up to Nighteye’s team to infiltrate and subdue anyone inside the warehouse.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Divide and conquer,” Fat Gum agreed. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And with that, the meeting slowed down, quieter, less intense conversations rising up as the heroes split into smaller groups to discuss tactics. Midoriya patted Hitoshi on the shoulder before trotting off after Mirio, looking more than a little nervous.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his teacher flag him down, jerking his chin towards the door before exiting the conference room himself. Present Mic seemed to already be following as well, so he mentally shrugged and went after the both of them. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What are we going to be doing?” he asked once the three of them were outside, still trying to wrap his head around this entire situation. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aizawa leaned against the wall of the building, crossing his arms and lowering his face to hide the bottom half in his scarf. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We’re the final line.” He shrugged with one shoulder. “If the League tries to escape, your quirk and mine are the best for isolating and subduing villains. Mic is our backup.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hitoshi squinted, still unsure.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What if a Nomu comes after us?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well, Mic has the biggest impact on Nomu.” The man in question nodded with a half smile. “And you’ve shown to be able to Brainwash spirits- if worst comes to worst, you should be at least able to slow a Nomu down.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Provided they answer me,” Hitoshi muttered, scratching the back of his head.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Present Mic looked like he was going to say something, but before he could, all three of them were distracted by a familiar, colorful ripple in the air. Aizawa immediately pushed himself off of the wall, eyes widening.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Master Aizawa!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eri, in the same clothes Hitoshi had seen her in two days ago, stumbled through the rift, running forwards at the teacher while Hei Bai lumbered out behind her, still in panda form.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“Eri.”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Aizawa quickly dropped to one knee, letting the girl throw her arms around him. “Are you alright?” He glanced up at the massive spirit, brow furrowed. “Where have you </span>
  <em>
    <span>been?”</span>
  </em>
  <span> he asked, clearly addressing the question to Hei Bai.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“They…” Eri hiccupped. “Master Aizawa, they hurt him.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A multitude of emotions swirled across the teacher’s face for the barest moment before stilling once more.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I know,” he said quietly. “We’ve made a plan to rescue him.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You have to go </span>
  <em>
    <span>now,”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Eri insisted, pressing a small palm to the front of his jumpsuit. “Hei Bai </span>
  <em>
    <span>knows.</span>
  </em>
  <span> We felt it. He’s gonna </span>
  <em>
    <span>die.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“H-how?” Hitoshi knelt next to her as well, prompting her to sniff and grab onto his scarf with her free hand. “Eri, where did you and Hei Bai go?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hei Bai rumbled, deep and slow.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The in-between.” The girl bit her lip, her face crumpling. “Everything was glowing. And they </span>
  <em>
    <span>stole</span>
  </em>
  <span> his light. It’s getting really dark.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aizawa was still.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Come on,” he finally said, getting to his feet. “Let’s go tell the others. We’re moving </span>
  <em>
    <span>now.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0027"><h2>27. You Didn't See That Coming?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>*evil cackling*</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Suddenly, everything was clear and still.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang blinked, his hands instinctively going to his chest, the phantom pain slowly fading away.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He… he was…</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Where was he?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He briefly glanced down at himself and tugged on the hem of his torn shirt, distantly noting the blood staining the edges before looking up and around once more.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was white and blank as far as the eye could see around him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He took a cautious step forwards, and his footsteps didn’t echo in the world around him. It was perfectly, unsettlingly quiet.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang grimaced, scrubbing at his eyes. The pain may be gone, but he was still so </span>
  <em>
    <span>tired.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Of everything.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Wait.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang lowered his hands, staring at them. Hesitantly, he circled his wrist in a basic air strike.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Nothing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And it felt like he’d been stabbed all over again.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He cycled through earth, water, fire, before trying his own element once more, desperate, even though he had horrible knowledge of what had happened.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s gone,” he finally whispered, closing his fists. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A presence and a soft set of footsteps disturbed the space. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang quickly glanced up, unable to stop the instinctive chill of fear that ran down his spine.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And stopped. And stared.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Orange robes, a beaded tabard, and an impossibly familiar face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Monk Gyatso?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His oldest mentor smiled, sad and patient.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hello, Aang.”</span>
</p><hr/>
<p>
  <span>Why did Shouta even </span>
  <em>
    <span>bother </span>
  </em>
  <span>thinking that anything he was involved with would ever go to plan? He should know better by now.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Ryukyu and Fat Gum’s teams had engaged on schedule, taking two Nomu on each. So far as he knew, Nighteye’s team had made it into the warehouse.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But there was no sign of the League. And most concerning, the General </span>
  <em>
    <span>hadn’t</span>
  </em>
  <span> stayed back to guard the warehouse like they had been expecting.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>No.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The General had come after </span>
  <em>
    <span>them.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And Eri was right. He was glowing brilliantly, blue-white and mildly terrifying.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Much</span>
  </em>
  <span> stronger than he’d been before.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta ducked as a blade of light whipped over his head, continuing to sprint out of the spirit’s range. Hizashi stepped up a moment later, screaming an attack out that rattled against the metal plates of armor. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The General spun, snarling, and not nearly as affected by the sonic attack as Shouta would have liked. He stomped his foot, shaking the ground and staggering everyone within the vicinity.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shinsou stumbled, going to his knees. The General whirled on his student, radiant sword raising to the heavens to slash downwards-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>No.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta whipped his capture weapon out, wrapping it around Shinsou’s midsection and </span>
  <em>
    <span>yanking,</span>
  </em>
  <span> dragging him out of the way as the blade came crashing down.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shinsou rolled, picking himself up a few moments later, grimacing and holding his side. Shouta grabbed his shoulder, helping him to his feet as they backed off.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s not working,” his student said, strained. “I can </span>
  <em>
    <span>feel</span>
  </em>
  <span> it every time he answers me, but it's like… it's like there’s a crowd of people in his head. Too many to control.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ok,” Shouta muttered. He signaled Hizashi. “We’re backing up and <em>getting</em> back up. Let’s go.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Boom.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta dragged Shinsou to the side in the next second, whipping his head around, wide-eyed, to stare at the massive, smoking trench in the concrete that a giant blitz of light had just shorn through.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hizashi was on the other side, looking equally shell-shocked, but yelling at the officers behind him, signaling them to retreat. There didn’t seem to be any arguments from that side.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The spirit stepped forwards, humming with energy.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Running so soon?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Something like that,” Shouta snapped back, adjusting his goggles. “Taking you down is taking a while. Mind giving up?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The General tilted his head, a glittering smile that bled white-blue light splitting his face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You humans might have briefly been able to fight me before-” His hands stretched out, calling light and energy alike to him. “But not now. Now when I have Raava’s light within me. Not as </span>
  <em>
    <span>humans </span>
  </em>
  <span>and not </span>
  <em>
    <span>alone.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“They don’t fight alone.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The battlefield… stilled.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The General froze where he was, staring. Shouta silently begged the universe to not throw anything else absolutely insane at him, and slowly turned to look for the new voice.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A spirit was walking forwards, towards them all.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Brown-white and vaguely lemur-like in shape, they stood on their hind legs with their paws held behind their back, with a bearing of regal poise. Their ears flicked gently as they passed the dumbstruck heroes and police, yellow eyes focused solely on the General.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“General Old Iron,” they called out, the air rippling behind them. “It’s been a long time.”</span>
</p><hr/>
<p>
  <span>And deep within Raava, pulled thin and warped as the Avatar was, memories stirred.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They… he knew them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was the Aye-Aye spirit.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Wan smiled.</span>
</p><hr/>
<p>
  <span>Well, the League wasn’t here.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>More accurately, the </span>
  <em>
    <span>real</span>
  </em>
  <span> League wasn’t here. A bunch of Copies of them </span>
  <em>
    <span>were,</span>
  </em>
  <span> and they were equally irritating to fight.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Duck!” Mirio yelled to him, and Izuku hit the deck, letting the older student pop out of the wall and clothesline the Dabi Clone that was doing his best to set him on fire. He rolled to his feet a moment later, showing his gratitude by Full-Cowl smashing a Magne as she yanked Mirio back towards her with her Copied quirk.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Sir Nighteye seemed to still be impossibly unruffled, despite the combat, avoiding blows and quirks alike without even using his own quirk. Izuku took half a second to be impressed before throwing himself backwards, flipping over a table to land in a crouch as a Toga tried to stab him, giggling.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Erk.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Deku! Lemillion! Go!” Nighteye snapped, twirling and bringing his foot down </span>
  <em>
    <span>hard</span>
  </em>
  <span> on the Toga Copy, smashing her into mud. “You have a hostage to rescue!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku brought his foot up, snap-kicking another Toga in the chest (why did </span>
  <em>
    <span>she</span>
  </em>
  <span> have to be the one copied the most?) and bounded over her, grabbing onto Mirio’s hand as he swung himself back out of the floor.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Come on,” Mirio said, adjusting his visor briefly. “Down the hallway to the back.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The two of them sprinted off, footsteps pounding against the concrete floor.</span>
</p><hr/>
<p>
  <span>“How…” The General seemed to be at a loss for words, a rare sight to see. “How are you here? You never leave your spirit oasis. The last time was…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The last time the Avatar needed my help,” the Aye-Aye agreed, slowing to a halt. “Four thousand years ago.” They spared a glance for Aang’s favorite teacher, who blinked but readied himself nonetheless, prepared to fight through anything. “I will never understand humans… or really like them, I suppose. But still.” They shrugged. “We cannot allow you to destroy any more.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The Avatar within Raava waited, listening.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We?” the General snarled, iridescent eyes narrowing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The Aye-Aye turned back to him, a fierce grin spreading over their face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And all around them, stepping onto the Material Plane in a world not their own- spirits readied themselves.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The kind spirits chuckled and chittered and chirped like they always did, circling once before running to stand with the Aye-Aye, drawing a fond smile from Wan as he watched their antics.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Fang rippled across the torn pavement, massive teeth bared in a thunderous growl and heat shimmering over his sides, and Roku briefly reached out a hand to greet his oldest friend.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I married the Avatar, once,” a proud, elegant woman in Earth Kingdom colors declared, chin held high, and Kyoshi softened the barest amount to see her beloved once more. “I would never turn my back on her.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The Avatar saved my home where the ice meets the sky,” said a small spirit in gentle shades of blue, the edges of their form wavering and translucent to match their voice. “I thank him, still.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And Kuruk laughed softly to see himself remembered so.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A single cranefish landed, to say nothing at all.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Yangchen still bowed her head, full of regret and bittersweet acceptance.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I knew my friend before he ever was the Avatar,” a tall man with long black hair said, wistful, and Aang could see Kuzon as he had once known him. “I still miss him.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The youngest of my house has found her path,” a massive boar rumbled, his wings flaring out behind him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hei Bei </span>
  <em>
    <span>roared </span>
  </em>
  <span>and pawed the ground beneath him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The Painted Lady smiled enigmatically behind her torn veil, mist rising around her form.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A silver glow lit up the battlefield as Yue touched down, her hands folded in fluttering sleeves.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We stand with the Avatar,” she said, as calm and kind as the day Aang had met her. “We stand with Aang.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We always have.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And then they were surrounded by orange robes, fluttering in the element they knew best, as the Air Nomads stood together for the first time in a century.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>On the outskirts of the battlefield, unnoticed by the quiet multitudes staring down the General, a man in black pulled his husband and his student away from the tension, sparing a moment to pick up a young child with white hair that had slipped from the shadows with her spirit friends as they arrived.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You would choose humans over your own kind?” the General growled. “You would abandon the Spirit World for the Avatar, when I could </span>
  <em>
    <span>save it?”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No.” The Aye-Aye spirit stood tall, staring the General down. “We would save the Spirit World from </span>
  <em>
    <span>you.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The Avatar </span>
  <em>
    <span>stole</span>
  </em>
  <span> our oldest friend!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The Avatar was a </span>
  <em>
    <span>gift!”</span>
  </em>
  <span> the Aye-Aye snapped, stamping the ground with one paw. “Raava entered this pact willingly. We made our choice, thousands of years ago. You </span>
  <em>
    <span>dishonor</span>
  </em>
  <span> her by pulling her from the vessel she </span>
  <em>
    <span>chose.</span>
  </em>
  <span> The human she found </span>
  <em>
    <span>worthy.”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Their tone and expression softened the slightest amount. “Please, Old Iron. Let her go. Let us all return home, in peace.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Quiet.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“No,”</span>
  </em>
  <span> the General hissed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He attacked.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The spirits held the line.</span>
</p><hr/>
<p>
  <span>They found him in a small room in the back of the warehouse.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The door was open, so there wasn’t much reason to kick it down, but Izuku certainly felt like doing it anyways upon seeing the room.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang was strapped to what looked like a medical table with cuffs, an oxygen mask of some sort over his face. Drawn, silent, and still. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There was another table to his left, and multiple wires and lengths of medical tubing were extended from his friend’s body to connect with a silvery glass cylinder, about three feet tall and </span>
  <em>
    <span>humming, </span>
  </em>
  <span>gleaming with pale blue light.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Aang!” Izuku took a step forward, Mirio at his back, relief and horror coursing through him in equal amounts. “We need to get him out of here.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mirio grabbed the back of his collar and yanked him backwards in warning, just as a swirling, black-purple portal opened in space.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Gentlemen.” A familiar individual stared at them, hands tucked primly behind his back. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku whirled instinctively and threw the nearest thing at him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>That thing just so happened to be a heavy wooden chair.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>Whoosh</em>
  <em>
    <span>.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku ducked, wide-eyed, as the chair he’d thrown shot right back at him thanks to a quickly-placed warp portal.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Why did it have to be the real Kurogiri?</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The cylinder!” he shouted at Mirio as the two of them split, dodging in different directions. “It’s some sort of power source!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So?” Mirio yelled back, vanishing into the floor to dodge Kurogiri’s next portal. He popped up a moment later on the other side of the room, tossing his cape over his shoulder.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s probably not good!” Izuku hit a slide, trying to get under Kurogiri to make it to the table, but zipped straight through a portal instead and almost crashed face first into a wall. “Break it!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You never stop discussing your plans in front of your opponent,” Kurogiri sighed, tossing Mirio aside when he tried to jump him from behind. “Children.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku dashed, Full Cowl sparking to life at 8% as he grit his teeth, doing a lightning-quick lap around the room before throwing himself directly </span>
  <em>
    <span>at</span>
  </em>
  <span> Kurogiri this time, trying to connect with the metal collar that seemed to be the only solid thing about the villain.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And yelped, because Kurogiri promptly portalled Mirio in front of him, and it was only some quick reactions on the older student’s part that let him phase harmlessly through instead of colliding midair. Izuku awkwardly cartwheeled in a move he’d learned from Ashido, landing fairly solidly on his own feet.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mirio landed behind Kurogiri, and mouthed </span>
  <em>
    <span>Now</span>
  </em>
  <span> across the room at him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Welp. Time to trust Lemillion.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku charged for the cylinder.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kurogiri sighed, the sound whispery and quiet, and extended another portal out in front of him-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And Mirio popped out of the floor, shoving Izuku aside and vanishing into the portal himself. Kurogiri turned, startled, extending his hand for another portal, but he was a second too slow-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku drew back his leg for a kick and-</span>
</p><hr/>
<p>
  <span>“Please,” Aang whispered. “Please don’t do this to me.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Monk Gyatso’s face softened.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I won’t do anything you don’t wish me to do.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You’re </span>
  <em>
    <span>dead,”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Aang said desperately, his voice cracking. “You’ve been dead for over a century.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I am,” his mentor agreed, tucking his hands in his robes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Then why are you </span>
  <em>
    <span>here?”</span>
  </em>
  
</p>
<p>
  <span>He felt himself shaking, clutching his hands to his chest.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Monk Gyatso approached slowly with precise, measured steps.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You needed help,” he said quietly. “And you shouldn’t have to go through this alone.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Abruptly, blazing </span>
  <em>
    <span>rage </span>
  </em>
  <span>rose in his chest, like bile surging on his tongue.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“Alone?”</span>
  </em>
  <span> he spat, taking a step forward. “You mean how I’ve been going through </span>
  <em>
    <span>everything</span>
  </em>
  <span> for </span>
  <em>
    <span>years?”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His mentor paused, grey eyes widening almost imperceptibly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Aang-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ever since you all told me I was the Avatar, I’ve been </span>
  <em>
    <span>alone!”</span>
  </em>
  <span> He turned, grabbing at his head, not sure whether the tremors in his arms were from rage or pain or grief. “Isolated from my friends because I needed to be </span>
  <em>
    <span>training,</span>
  </em>
  <span> sent off to another damn Air Temple because I had to </span>
  <em>
    <span>distance</span>
  </em>
  <span> myself from my own people!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Aang, please-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“No,”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Aang snapped, whirling around “Why?! Why did it have to be </span>
  <em>
    <span>me?</span>
  </em>
  <span> Why did </span>
  <em>
    <span>I</span>
  </em>
  <span> have to be the one to save the world?!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Monk Gyatso just looked sad, raising a hand towards him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Aang…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“I was just a kid!”</span>
  </em>
  <span> he screamed. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And just like that, everything... broke.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang wrapped his arms around himself, slowly sinking to his knees and </span>
  <em>
    <span>sobbed,</span>
  </em>
  <span> letting all of his grief and rage finally, </span>
  <em>
    <span>finally,</span>
  </em>
  <span> pour out of him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I </span>
  <em>
    <span>still am</span>
  </em>
  <span> a kid!” He roughly swiped a hand over his face, not caring about the tears as they streamed freely. “That’s all I ever wanted to be, but I didn’t even have a </span>
  <em>
    <span>choice!” </span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He distantly heard his airbending master approach as he just tried to </span>
  <em>
    <span>breathe, </span>
  </em>
  <span>to not just dissolve and wash away through all the raw </span>
  <em>
    <span>hurt.</span>
  </em>
  <span> The man knelt, carefully, and he felt a soft, but somehow tangible hand rest on his shoulder.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I know,” Monk Gyatso said quietly, in a voice filled with regret. “And I’m sorry.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I just wanted to stay with you,” Aang croaked, head bowed. “I didn’t want to be sent away. I didn’t want to </span>
  <em>
    <span>leave.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I didn’t want you to leave either.” Monk Gyatso lifted his chin with a cool finger, a look of absolute sorrow creasing his face. “And we </span>
  <em>
    <span>never</span>
  </em>
  <span> should have given you such a burden.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I just don’t know what I’m supposed to </span>
  <em>
    <span>do.”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Aang rubbed his eyes, dashing the tears from his cheeks. “I’ve made so many </span>
  <em>
    <span>mistakes.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Zhao, and the General, and </span>
  <em>
    <span>so many</span>
  </em>
  <span> other things. I’m just... I’m just trying to not break the world all over again.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Silence.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And the only thing that kept me going was because I was the Avatar,” Aang said dully. “That’s the only reason I’ve gotten this far. And the General </span>
  <em>
    <span>took</span>
  </em>
  <span> that.” His head hung forwards, closing his eyes. “I have nothing left. The Avatar is gone.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The hand on his shoulder left, prompting him to look up at Monk Gyatso, nonplussed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Was it the </span>
  <em>
    <span>Avatar</span>
  </em>
  <span> who helped me throw pies at the elders?” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang stared at him, not sure what to say.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Was it the Avatar who had to replace his drop spindle four times because he kept dropping them off his bison?” Monk Gyatso gently pressed. “Was it the </span>
  <em>
    <span>Avatar </span>
  </em>
  <span>who won the ribbon race three years in a row?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“...I-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A warm hand took his, squeezing lightly and banishing the last of the chill out of his mind.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Was it the Avatar who invented the air scooter?” Monk Gyatso asked quietly, his tone softening. “Thus becoming the youngest Airbending Master in memory, all because he wanted to have fun with his friends, and share that experience with them?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A soft hand on the back of his neck.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Whether or not you are the Avatar, you have always been </span>
  <em>
    <span>Aang.” </span>
  </em>
  <span>And he was drawn close, into an embrace he’d thought he’d never feel again. “And that is </span>
  <em>
    <span>enough.</span>
  </em>
  <span> You are enough, Aang.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And Aang… finally gave in.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span> He slumped gratefully in his mentor’s arms, the first person that he had ever really loved as family, silent tears still dripping down his face. His robes smelled of wool and fresh air and wood sap and it was so </span>
  <em>
    <span>painfully</span>
  </em>
  <span> familiar that it made his heart ache. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I miss you,” Aang whispered, his voice breaking. “I miss all of you </span>
  <em>
    <span>so much.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We know.” Monk Gyatso cupped his face with one hand, fond and wistful. “But we are with you. Always.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“But what do I do?” he asked, pulling back to look him in the eyes. “What </span>
  <em>
    <span>can</span>
  </em>
  <span> I do?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well.” Monk Gyatso patted his shoulder with a soft smile. “You can stay here- and no one would fault you for that. You could rest.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang hesitated.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Or?” he asked, already knowing the answer. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Or-” His mentor dipped his chin. “You can get up. And keep fighting.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang took a deep breath.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I have to go,” he said, looking at Monk Gyatso. “I can’t leave my friends.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The man tilted his head.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It will be difficult.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang smiled.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I know.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His mentor smiled back, warmth and blazing pride in his eyes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Then- it’s up to you.”</span>
</p><hr/>
<p>
  <span>“Come on, Aang,” Izuku whispered.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His foot, iron-soled boots and all, connected.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The cylinder </span>
  <em>
    <span>shattered.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And the room exploded into light.</span>
</p><hr/>
<p>
  <span>Shouta quickly turned, alarmed, at the earth-shattering </span>
  <em>
    <span>bellow</span>
  </em>
  <span> that thundered over the battlefield as the General… stumbled.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The light within his helmet briefly flickered, and then went dark, his previously red and white visage returning.</span>
</p><hr/>
<p>
  <span>Aang pulled slowly on his Avatar spirit, calling it to him in dribs and drabs, unsure as to why it felt so </span>
  <em>
    <span>joyful</span>
  </em>
  <span> at the moment, but considering it a small blessing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Then- </span>
  <em>
    <span>something</span>
  </em>
  <span> snapped.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And the trickle became a </span>
  <em>
    <span>flood.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Burning, howling, it tore down everything in its path as the gamut of spiritual energy </span>
  <em>
    <span>crashed</span>
  </em>
  <span> back into his ki and it </span>
  <em>
    <span>hurt.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang came back to himself with a scream that echoed a thousand times over, </span>
  <em>
    <span>surging</span>
  </em>
  <span> upwards, the binds that had been keeping him restrained the past few days veritably disintegrating as he was </span>
  <em>
    <span>enveloped</span>
  </em>
  <span> in the Avatar State.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Something dark moved in his field of vision and he blindly lashed out, pouncing on it with no thought of action or consideration. He </span>
  <em>
    <span>slammed</span>
  </em>
  <span> someone into the floor, on all fours like some sort of wild beast. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The energy, the essence of this person under his fingertips… It was </span>
  <em>
    <span>wrong.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His spirit and ki were bunched and overlaid and stitched together and it </span>
  <em>
    <span>hurt</span>
  </em>
  <span> as Aang tore through it, desperate to fix the sheer </span>
  <em>
    <span>wrongness </span>
  </em>
  <span>of this Nomu, of this patchwork spirit.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Energy and matter that were never supposed to exist together fell apart into mere stardust. Someone breathed in a sharp, disbelieving breath for the first time in over a decade.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The smell of water and fresh air, exploding outwards.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The sound of metal, clattering to the floor.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And once again, everything went dark.</span>
</p><hr/>
<p>
  <span>Shouta took a moment to breathe out a soft sigh of hope (not quite relief, not yet) and handed Eri off to Shinsou, who nodded and kept retreating, while he turned back to the screaming spirit showdown that was going down on the abandoned streets.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The General charged through the now-quiet spirits, tossing some aside as they slid translucent over the shattered ground.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“You</span>
  </em>
  <span> were the Avatar’s teacher!” the enraged spirit growled, flaring blood red. “If I cannot kill him at the moment, I will settle for you!”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Oh, fuck me.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta whipped his scarf over his shoulders, preparing himself to try and defend as the sword started to descend. He could see Hizashi out of the corner of his eye, turning to him and beginning to shout, his horrified eyes widening behind his glasses.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Then Shouta was </span>
  <em>
    <span>slammed</span>
  </em>
  <span> aside with something that felt like a slightly fluffy freight train.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He went flying and tumbled into a sloppy roll with a pained grunt, because while he was pretty alright with the fact that he </span>
  <em>
    <span>hadn’t </span>
  </em>
  <span>just been sliced in two like an unfortunate anime background character, that still </span>
  <em>
    <span>hurt like hell.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A scraping of asphalt later, he skidded to his feet, brushing his hair out of his face with a grimace to prepare to either get back in the fight or make a sudden, tactical retreat, based on whatever or whoever had just hit him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And froze, because he found himself looking into a face he’d never thought he’d see again.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A man in the tattered remains of a suit grinned at him, though it was sad and pained, leaning over with his hands on his knees and breathing heavily. Mingled purple and blue wisps floated around him, vaguely unstable, but unmistakable all the same.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Heya, Alley Cat.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta felt his knees buckle, and he stumbled onto them, staring.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“...Oboro?”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0028"><h2>28. Be My Mirror, My Sword, My Shield</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>you guys are great lmao I love reading all the comments that are essentially just screaming at me I LIVE for that<br/>oh and happy halloween!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>“Come on, come on,” Izuku muttered as he and Mirio skidded around yet another corner of the warehouse’s interior.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He’s still breathing,” Mirio said urgently, adjusting their friend in his arms. Aang was limp and unconscious again, but somehow more peaceful than he’d been just short moments ago.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>After Izuku had smashed the cylinder, everything had gone a little… bright. It was like a supernova had gone off in the room, centered around his friend, and by the time he and Mirio had managed to blink the spots out of their eyes, Kurogiri was gone, and Aang was prone once more.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>From there, it was all they could do to make sure he was still breathing, scoop him up, and book it out of there.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Where’s Sir?” Mirio asked as the two of them ran, more for both of their considerations rather than expecting a direct answer. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Up ahead of them, a door burst open.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>What looked like half of a Compress Copy flew through it backwards and smashed into the adjacent wall, sliding downwards into dissolving wax. Sir Nighteye stepped out of the doorway a moment later, looking irritated.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sir Nighteye!” Izuku blurted out as he and Mirio slid to a halt. The Pro Hero immediately glanced in their direction, taking in their flustered state and the familiar, unconscious teenager in Mirio’s arms. He straightened his tie with narrowed eyes, a single, bloody gash across his forehead, ruffling his normally perfect bangs.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I see you succeeded,” he said dryly. “The situation here has been handled.” He turned, heading for the end of the hallway. “Come. We should rejoin the others.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Because that was just how Sir Nighteye was.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku and Mirio both shared a look and hastily followed him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It didn’t take long for the four of them to exit the now thoroughly abandoned warehouse, taking foot on the rough pavement outside. It was mostly dark by this point, the odd street lamp starting to flicker on in peripheral visions. Izuku could see the perimeter team, looking rather shell-shocked, with the policeman having retreated behind them. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And for good reason.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The broken streets were </span>
  <em>
    <span>filled </span>
  </em>
  <span>with spirits.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Animals, humans, otherworldly shapes, multitudes of colors and spirals and textures, filling the air. And in the midst of all of that, was the General. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The spirits, which seemed to have briefly dispersed with multiple outside arrivals, congregated together once more and as a group, advanced steadily on the massive spirit that towered over all of them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But the General actually </span>
  <em>
    <span>stumbled</span>
  </em>
  <span> backwards, looking… impossibly scared. The air began to ripple around him as the spirits surrounding him grew closer together, warping his figure and expression until he could no longer be seen clearly, only the vaguest impression of him hanging in the ether.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There was a wordless, inhuman scream that started well below the threshold of what was humanly possible, so deep that it resounded through everyone’s chests in the immediate vicinity. All the humans instinctively recoiled at the monstrous sound, but the spirits didn’t waver.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They converged, some solid and colorful, others ephemeral and translucent, but all carrying the single-minded focus and bearing of a task that they knew needed to be carried out. The scream continued, rising in pitch and intensity until Izuku found himself forced to clamp his hands over his ears and grit his teeth in face of the sheer </span>
  <em>
    <span>onslaught</span>
  </em>
  <span> of sound.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And then it-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Abruptly-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Stopped.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>There was a harmonic </span>
  <em>
    <span>snap,</span>
  </em>
  <span> like the breaking of an ethereal violin string and </span>
  <em>
    <span>light </span>
  </em>
  <span>radiated outwards. The soft grey of dawning sunlight through mist, it washed over the area in a flood of radiance.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And when it had dispersed, and everyone could look up once more-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>General Old Iron was gone.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was quiet. Nonplussed humans stared at the now-empty space, considering.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well.” Sir Nighteye tilted his head, an indefinable expression crossing his face. “I suppose we don’t have to worry about that for a while, at the very least.” He shaded his eyes with one hand, staring off down the street. “Lemillion, Deku, remain here. Get Aang medical attention. I shall be back shortly.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku managed a mostly cohesive nod of confirmation as the Pro Hero quickly took off, fading from sight into the half-light of dusk. He glanced back at Mirio, who simply shrugged, uncharacteristically subdued in face of this whole affair, before the two of them began to make their way over to the rest of the heroes currently on the scene.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It seemed so… strange, that in the end it had been that simple. All the weeks of planning and tension and uncertainty- and the General had truly gone out with a whisper, not a roar.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku frowned, turning to look at Aang. He took in the red, scabbed over burns on his upper arms, the bandages around his wrists, the paleness of his skin, the new Lichtenberg scarring spiraling down his left arm.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But not without leaving a mark.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey.” Izuku shook himself as Shinsou approached, brow creased as he took in Aang. Mirio seemed content to carry him for the moment. Shinsou looked back to Izuku, hesitating before placing a soft hand on his shoulder. “You good?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I will be,” Izuku returned, trying for a small smile. “What happened out here?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Uh, the General went Super Saiyan, I almost got vaporized like four times, then the ghost squad showed up and…” Shinsou made an exploding gesture with his hands, completely deadpan. “Poof.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“...helpful, thanks.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“‘Zuku!” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eri ducked out from behind Shinsou and charged for Izuku, wrapping her arms around his legs in a slightly frantic hug.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You’re ok!” she said, slightly muffled from where her face was buried in the fabric of his hero costume. Izuku couldn’t help the small laugh as he gently untangled her fingers and crouched so he could give her a proper hug.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I </span>
  <em>
    <span>am </span>
  </em>
  <span>ok. So are Mirio and Sir.” He glanced behind him, up at Mirio, who smiled at Eri. “And we got Aang back.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Eri blinked, biting her bottom lip.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Is he </span>
  <em>
    <span>not </span>
  </em>
  <span>ok?” she asked, subdued.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mirio knelt briefly, so she could see their friend.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He’s hurt right now,” he said gently. “But we’re taking him home.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The girl carefully touched Aang’s arm with her fingertips, the one with the electric scars tearing across the skin.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He has more marks now,” she said sadly. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Movement caught Izuku’s attention and he glanced up, swallowing some of the sadness that had made itself known at Eri’s words. He caught his teacher’s gaze across the street. Aizawa-sensei was clearly marking all of his students’ whereabouts, his eyes occasionally flicking back to the other side. He pressed his lips together, looking towards Mirio and Aang, before apparently  making up his mind and heading for the pack of spirits that were quietly drifting apart with the enemy now gone.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A spirit, the one who seemed to be the leader, was walking back towards the heroes now that their job was finished. The teacher met them halfway, and they both engaged in a brief stare-down, uncertain.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You finished it,” Aizawa-sensei said roughly. It wasn’t a question.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He was one of us,” the Aye-Aye spirit said, their eyes narrowing. “And so we dealt with him accordingly.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku’s teacher stared at them for a moment, his expression unreadable. Then he closed his eyes briefly, and bowed deeply to the spirit, lowering his head.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Thank you.” His voice was solemn and quiet. “For coming. And for everything else.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The spirit looked him up and down, and Izuku thought they seemed almost… surprised.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Humans with manners. Will wonders never cease.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They turned, their large ears flicking gently. Their gaze landed on Aang and they sighed, before approaching with graceful, measured steps. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They stopped in front of Mirio, who had straightened up again, blinking slowly in contemplation at the unconscious Avatar in his arms, battered and bruised and looking so very, very small. A small chuffing trill could be briefly heard, quiet and melodic, and they gently passed a long-fingered paw over his still face, soft golden light spilling forth and sinking into Aang’s skin. Izuku’s friend breathed out, and relaxed minutely, seemingly slipping from unconsciousness back into a natural sleep as his breathing became less labored.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I do not say this often- or lightly.” The Aye-Aye spirit bowed their head for the briefest of moments. “But this human is one of the best examples of your race. When he finally joins Raava in spirit- he will be missed.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And they faded, the air rippling around them, the gold of their eyes the last thing to fade away.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>All around them, spirits began to wink out of existence. Some simply vanished, others, like the elegant woman in silver with flowing white hair, nodded to Izuku and smiled before taking their leave as well. But the ethereal figures in orange and yellow robes lingered, still, slowly shifting to stand together once more, their attention focused…</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>On Aang.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The orange-robed monks drifted closer, mostly indistinct at this point.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A slow murmur rose up as they circled with whispering voices, apologetic and wistful and unbearably sad. There was almost a song to their voices at this point, a soft, mournful melody of regret and days gone by.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And slowly, the monks began to disappear as well, leaving behind fresh gusts of wind that whipped playfully around everyone as they faded into the grey.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Until there was only one left, standing calmly amidst the silence and destruction all around him. He approached Izuku and his friends much as the Aye-Aye spirit had, taking a moment to acknowledge the teens that nervously hovered around their friend. He nodded to them, kindly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Thank you for taking care of Aang.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I…” Izuku bit his lip, looking at the carnage around them, the battle-worn appearances of the nearby heroes and those in the far distance, just now starting to make their way back to the main group after what was undoubtedly a fierce battle with the last of Nomu, and rubbed the back of his neck. “I think he’s the one who’s been taking care of </span>
  <em>
    <span>us,</span>
  </em>
  <span> really.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The monk- an Airbending Master, Izuku realized, recognizing the robes and tattoos- gently ran his hand over Aang’s forehead, smiling sadly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He does make a habit of helping others,” he said quietly, brushing the short, black wisps of hair aside with his thumb. He glanced back up, gazing around at all the individuals watching these proceedings with a solemn air, and sighed before smiling again, turning back to Aang.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Thank you. All of you.” The monk dipped his chin, and Izuku could see the barest trace of tears glittering over his face, as well as fondness and long-known grief. “This time, we got to say goodbye.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And he was gone.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku swallowed, suddenly realizing that he was very, </span>
  <em>
    <span>very</span>
  </em>
  <span> tired.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Looks like Detective Tsukauchi’s men have set up a triage,” Mirio said after a moment, breaking the silence. He nodded to Izuku. “I should go get Aang to them.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“T-thanks, Lemillion.” Izuku smiled, a little wobbly. “For having my back today.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Mirio smiled back.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You should be proud- you did great.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Is… is that it for spirits, then?” Shinsou hesitantly asked as Mirio slowly started for the medics with his important cargo. “We did it?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>A familiar roar resounded out, startling the two of them, though Eri just clasped her hands together, eyes crinkling slightly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Except for Hei Bai,” she said solemnly, as indeed the giant bear spirit in question came galloping over.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hei Bai made a deep, satisfied grumbling noise and nuzzled Shinsou directly in the stomach with his massive snout.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“Uh.”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Shinsou looked mildly alarmed at such a clear show of affection, awkwardly patting the spirit on the head. “Yes, hello. I’m alive. Thanks.” He shot Izuku a look that clearly read as </span>
  <em>
    <span>help.</span>
  </em>
  <span> Izuku just grinned at him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“By the way…” Shinsou, who had scowled slightly at Izuku’s clear betrayal, sobered and jerked a thumb over his shoulder towards where their teachers were. “Aizawa-sensei seems a little distracted- something’s up.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Izuku looked over to the conversation in question, noting the new addition to their midst and stiffening as he recognized that particular pattern of coat and slacks. Aizawa-sensei was tense, on edge. Mic-sensei had also approached both him and the strange man at this point, both hands over his mouth and tears welling up from wide, disbelieving eyes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“How?” Aizawa-sensei was saying, gripping his capture scarf tightly with both hands, eyes narrowed and brow furrowed like he was trying to solve a puzzle that had no answer, but he’d be damned before he stopped trying to understand it. “How did you come back?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The man looked down at his hands, clenching and opening them a few times, looking mystified.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I… I’m not sure.” His voice was rough and shaky, uncertain. He pressed a hand to the side of his head. “Everything is… a little foggy at the moment.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Uh- isn’t that Kurogiri?” Izuku whispered in an aside, mildly concerned.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shinsou shrugged.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I don’t know what the fuck is going on any more than you do.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It </span>
  <em>
    <span>was</span>
  </em>
  <span> Kurogiri’s suit, or at least the slightly tattered remains of it. The metal collar (and maybe that was a thought to return to later) had vanished or at the very least fallen off. The man that stood there now looked human, his blue-purple hair wisping gently upwards in a similar style to how Kurogiri’s- essence?- had flickered every time Izuku had seen him before.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It </span>
  <em>
    <span>is</span>
  </em>
  <span> you, right?” Mic-sensei asked hoarsely. “You… you remember us?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The man smiled sadly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“How could I forget?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aizawa-sensei was quiet for a few seconds.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And then gritted his teeth and </span>
  <em>
    <span>immediately </span>
  </em>
  <span>punched his friend in the chest.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“Ow-”</span>
  </em>
  <span> The man who used to be Kurogiri took a step back, holding onto his chest protectively. “What the- </span>
  <em>
    <span>why?!”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I </span>
  <em>
    <span>told you</span>
  </em>
  <span> to wait for backup you fucking </span>
  <em>
    <span>idiot-”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aizawa-sensei started forwards menacingly-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And grabbed the man in an almost-desperate hug, holding on so tightly that Izuku could see his knuckles whiten.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The man startled at the contact, but relaxed a moment later and wrapped his arms loosely around the teacher, resting his chin on his shoulder. Mic-sensei stepped up and laid a hand on his shoulder, smiling through his tears.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We missed you, Oboro.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0029"><h2>29. The Gang's All Here</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I have been very sick for like the past four days so my apologies to not responding to the comments they were lovely :'(</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Aang was getting really tired of passing out.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And just…</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Tired, in general.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>…anyways.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Wakefulness crept up on him this time, slow as a sunrise. One by one, his senses returned to him, soft whispers becoming understandable as he blinked at the warm light at the edge of his vision.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“... stay for a bit?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Should be… in a…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He opened his eyes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>White spaces met his gaze and for a brief second he thought he was back in that mindscape before the rest of the world solidified into view. He was laying in a bed, slightly propped up.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ah, there we are.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang glanced over at the sound of a woman’s voice, meeting the friendly gaze of a woman dressed in professional looking blues, purple hair tied back in a sleek bun.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Don’t move too fast,” the nurse advised, setting a gentle hand on his shoulder. “We don’t want you to get dizzy.” She looked over his head at a monitor, pursing her lips. “Well, you’re looking </span>
  <em>
    <span>a lot</span>
  </em>
  <span> better today.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang scanned the room, relaxing when he caught sight of Midoriya sitting in a chair, who grinned at him in clear relief.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“How are you feeling?” the nurse asked him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang cleared his throat.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Tired,” he answered honestly. He flexed his fingers, blinking at the odd sensation on his left forearm and turning his head to look.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s understandable. Anything else?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What is </span>
  <em>
    <span>that?”</span>
  </em>
  <span> he asked with some concern, attention caught by the needle that was currently stuck </span>
  <em>
    <span>in his arm.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Fortunately, the nurse didn’t seem to take offense or be in any way irritated by his question.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s an IV, dear. You needed extra fluids, and this is the most efficient way to do it.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang squinted at it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Katara would either love this or hate this and I can’t tell which.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The nurse smiled at him as she tucked away whatever she’d been carrying.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m going to go speak to the doctor, but you will most likely be able to go home today,” she said. She nodded to Midoriya. “Your friend is welcome to stay with you until your legal guardian comes by.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>After she left, Aang turned to Midoriya, eyebrows raised.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“My-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I think she meant Aizawa-sensei,” Midoriya admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. “Legality is a little funny when you’re dealing with a different universe. Everything ok?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang pushed himself into a sitting position, swallowing down a pained squeak.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m a little sore,” he admitted, as just about every muscle in his body screamed at him at the same time.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya winced.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That bad, huh?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang did his best not to grimace.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“How long have I…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Been out?” Midoriya extrapolated. “Only like a day or so.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Mmm.” Aang rubbed at his eyes. “Could have been worse, I guess.” He hesitated, before speaking again. “What… happened?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Like, after the light show, or to the spirits, or-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“In general,” Aang said quietly, interrupting before Midoriya could get too far into his mumbling process. “I… don’t remember a lot.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ah-” Midoriya rubbed at his nose with his thumb, looking a little awkward. “Well. To be… uh, brief. Four hero teams attacked the warehouse the League had been hiding out in. Sir Nighteye, Mirio and myself went in to find you while the other main hero teams, with Fat Gum and Ryukyu, engaged the Nomu, and Aizawa-sensei’s team held the perimeter.” He waved a hand, uncertain. “We </span>
  <em>
    <span>did</span>
  </em>
  <span> end up missing most of the battle, but we found you and kind of fought Kurogiri in the same room?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya hesitated, and Aang nodded slightly to show he was still listening.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I broke whatever you were connected to,” Midoriya continued hastily. “And you went into the Avatar State. Jumped on Kurogiri and then, collapsed again.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I did what?” Aang sat up a little straighter, wincing as his back protested, and frowned. “Wait, what happened to Kurogiri?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya made a very amusing face that Aang made sure to mentally save to laugh about later.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Wellll…” He knit his fingers together, very visibly trying to find the right words. “You kind of… unbrainwashed him?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“...what?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction too.” Midoriya shrugged. “I’m not too clear on all the details. But in the end, uh. A </span>
  <em>
    <span>lot</span>
  </em>
  <span> of spirits showed up.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh-” Aang felt something tighten in his chest as </span>
  <em>
    <span>flashes</span>
  </em>
  <span> of images and thought and memory whispered through his mind, instinctively pressing one of his hands to his sternum. “I… I think I remember that part.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya looked relieved to not have to continue to recount the story, relaxing back into his chair a little bit.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And, after all that, all that was left was just to get people to the hospital-” he made a vague gesture to their surroundings. “And now we’re here.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang stretched out his arms experimentally as he slowly processed, frowning at the shiny band of paper around one of his wrists.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Where </span>
  <em>
    <span>is</span>
  </em>
  <span> here, exactly?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya rattled off the address and Aang blinked, the irony not lost on him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Same hospital Master Aizawa and I visited Manual in,” he explained when Midoriya looked askance at his brief huff of amusement. “And not that I’m not glad to see you- I am. But why did you come visit? I mean-” Aang dropped his hands on the sheet covering his leg. “Being unconscious makes for poor conversation.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya grinned, wry.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Mostly for the novelty of being able to be the visitor this time- usually </span>
  <em>
    <span>I’m</span>
  </em>
  <span> on your end.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang stared at him, and the look on his face must have been a sight to see because the other teen snickered, covering his mouth with one hand.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No, in all honesty I thought you could use a friendly face when you woke up, so I tagged along with Aizawa-sensei.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“...thank you.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya’s expression softened.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Of course.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The door opened barely a moment later, revealing the familiar figure of Master Aizawa. Both teens looked up.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey, Sensei,” Midoriya greeted. He got to his feet, stretching out his back a little. “I’m going to go get some water. I’ll be back in a bit.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Master Aizawa simply raised an eyebrow at him and stepped aside to let him leave.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“If you end up in one of these beds, I’m not rescuing you,” he said dryly. Midoriya simply made a face and vanished down the hallway.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The teacher turned back to Aang, claiming the seat next to his bed. He looked… tired, but not exhausted.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s good to see you awake,” he said quietly. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang felt swelling emotion prickle at the corners of his eyes and he smiled, a little shaky, but still there.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m glad to be awake,” he said honestly. “Is the General really…?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Gone,” Master Aizawa confirmed, dipping his head in a small nod. “It’s almost over.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Almost?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The teacher paused before answering, choosing his words carefully.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The League staged a breakout for two of their members,” he eventually said. “When two individuals that looked like both you and Midoriya showed up at the station where they were being held… some guards were let down.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang dropped his gaze to his hands, pressing them together to stop the small tremors that ran through them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And… Zhao?” he asked, voice barely above a whisper.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Master Aizawa’s face tightened.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He and Boil have… separated from the League,” he slowly said. “We’re still trying to find them.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang nodded, not looking up.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey.” A hand gently gripped the back of his neck and he leaned into the touch, suddenly exhausted. “You did good, kid. None of this is your fault.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang closed his eyes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I know,” he said quietly, feeling his words resound with surprising truth inside himself. “He looked up into the teacher’s dark gaze. “Thank you… for coming.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Master Aizawa gave him the barest of smiles, his hand warm and comforting and chasing away the last of the chill hiding inside Aang’s chest.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Let’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> do this again, ok, problem child?” the teacher said. “I’m too old for this.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Aren’t you like, thirty?” Aang asked, feeling a small grin forming despite himself.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s too old for most of the things my hell class puts me through, honestly.”</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>Both Hei Bai and Eri were </span>
  <em>
    <span>ecstatic</span>
  </em>
  <span> to see Aang when he finally was released from the hospital.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Luckily, Shinsou was managing both of them when he and Shouta made their way back to Heights Alliance, thus sparing Aang the fate of getting flattened into the grass by two overly enthusiastic embraces.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang himself looked much calmer than he had been in a while, absentmindedly twirling wind around his arms and robes as they walked.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What now?” Shinsou was currently asking, glancing up at Shouta as both Eri and Hei Bai greeted Aang. “I mean, the class pretty much all know about Aang now, anyways. People talk. Also-” he raised an eyebrow, gesturing back towards the dorms. “Did you know that both Ojiro and Hagakure were the first to know? Apparently Hagakure has been having an existential crisis for a few weeks because she’s been seeing weird spirit creatures everywhere and no one else could see them. And she told Ojiro because, you know. Of course.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta paused, considering.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ah.” He glanced over at Aang, who was speaking softly to Eri at the moment. “Aang told me that a spirit… </span>
  <em>
    <span>inhabited</span>
  </em>
  <span> Hagakure for a short amount of time. There must have been more repercussions to that than we’d initially thought.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shinsou squinted.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well, that’s not concerning at </span>
  <em>
    <span>all.</span>
  </em>
  <span> I… is that a fox?” he said suddenly, staring past where Aang had gotten to his feet, also curiously gazing in that direction.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta dragged a hand down his face, sighing, and turned to look for himself.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It </span>
  <em>
    <span>was,</span>
  </em>
  <span> in fact, a fox.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It tilted its head at them, eyes focused and intelligent. It was big for a fox, with fur in a vibrant orange that tapered down to russet browns and soft creams.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yes, it is,” Shouta said for lack of anything better to say.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Uh…” Aang raised a finger, hesitant, as he walked over to both of them. “It’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>not</span>
  </em>
  <span> a fox, actually.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Both Shouta and Shinsou turned to look at him in mingled disbelief and mild resignation.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s a Knowledge Seeker,” Aang hastily continued, seeing the looks on their faces. “They’re a spirit. From, uh-” He turned back to the spirit. “Wait, you’re from Wan Shi Tong’s library, right?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The Knowledge Seeker nodded. Aang looked nonplussed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Then what are you doing </span>
  <em>
    <span>here?”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The spirit gave Aang a very unimpressed look and trotted away, fading into the air with barely a shimmer.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So,” Shinsou said, breaking the confused silence. “Is it like, a universal constant that foxes are dicks?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I… don’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>think</span>
  </em>
  <span> so,” Aang said, brow furrowed. “But usually the Knowledge Seekers have a specific job. I’ve never seen one outside the library before.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The earth rumbled beneath their feet. Aang looked down, eyes widening in what appeared to be realization.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh. Oh </span>
  <em>
    <span>no.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Before Shouta could ask what </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> meant, the monk took off across the grass.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shinsou stared after him, baffled.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Wha-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“TWINKLETOES, YOU LITTLE </span>
  <em>
    <span>BITCH.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>What could charitably be called a small earthquake and less charitably called an earthen gremlin </span>
  <em>
    <span>shot</span>
  </em>
  <span> out of the ground and </span>
  <em>
    <span>crashed</span>
  </em>
  <span> full tilt into Aang before anyone had any time to react. They both tumbled several times in a mix of orange and green, Aang’s squeak of surprise just barely audible over the general rumbling of rock.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta started forwards instinctively, capture scarf already fanning out, but paused when he saw that Hei Bai was… still relaxed and at ease.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>…</em>
  <em>
    <span>oh.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The person currently pinning Aang to the ground sat up, scowling.</span>
</p>
<p><span>“Do you have </span><em><span>any idea </span></em><span>how annoying this was?” she demanded. “I had to be in close contact with Katara for </span><em><span>weeks.</span></em> <em><span>Weeks!”</span></em></p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta could see Aang’s shoulders shake, and realized that he was </span>
  <em>
    <span>laughing. </span>
  </em>
  <span>The mysterious teenager thumped her fist on his chest, only prompting him to laugh harder.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“Toph!”</span>
  </em>
  <span> someone screeched, and Shouta tilted his head back with a sigh, silently asking the universe what he’d done to deserve this. “I swear, if you’ve already killed him after we went through </span>
  <em>
    <span>all of this-”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And four more teenagers came charging out of the trees on the outskirts of the dorms, a motley of deadly weapons in hand and varying looks of exasperation, relief, or straight up fury on their faces.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The one who had yelled, a particularly tall young man with a shaved hairstyle, simply ran up and grabbed the back of earth gremlin’s tunic, hauling her off Aang by the scruff of the neck like an unruly kitten. She retaliated by sweeping his feet out from under him with a stomp that Shouta tiredly identified as earthbending and pinning </span>
  <em>
    <span>him</span>
  </em>
  <span> to the ground instead.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta pinched the bridge of his nose and held his arm out in front of Shinsou as he instinctively started forwards to help. His student looked askance up at him, confused.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Don’t bother,” he grumbled. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was about </span>
  <em>
    <span>damn time.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And then the newcomers all descended upon Aang in a shouting, chaotic clash of voices and he just </span>
  <em>
    <span>grinned,</span>
  </em>
  <span> opening his arms wide and welcoming them in.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Looks like Aang’s friends had finally found him.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0030"><h2>30. A Reunion, but Bittersweet</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>:^) oh you didn't think I was done, did you?</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>
    <span>Huh. Ok.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Even Hitoshi’s sleep-deprived brain could slowly catch onto the general gist of things where the five newcomers were concerned. Old-fashioned, traditional hodgepodge of clothing, medieval weapons-</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Yeah, ok, these people were from Aang’s world.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Attacker One seemed to be through with pummeling her long-suffering taller friend and sat up, grinning broadly as she socked Aang in the arm. In the space between that and Aang’s answering protest, the girl in blue dropped to her knees and threw her arms around him, long hair spilling over her shoulders in a dark wave.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You’re an </span>
  <em>
    <span>idiot,”</span>
  </em>
  <span> she said, even as her arms tightened around Aang in a desperate hug, voice thick with tears. “We’ve been </span>
  <em>
    <span>so worried</span>
  </em>
  <span>.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m sorry,” Aang murmured, resting his head on her shoulder. “I didn’t want to. It was kind of an unexpected thing.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You don’t say,” one of his friends said in a completely deadpan voice, and Hitoshi had to blink and look twice at the sight of the red scar tissue surrounding his left eye, uncomfortably familiar to one of his classmate’s. “Mai says that she is going to take up Avatar hunting again once you get back, by the way.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang winced theatrically, but it was full of humor as his eyes glimmered.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ouch.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, what the hell </span>
  <em>
    <span>happened?”</span>
  </em>
  <span> The young man on the ground finally sat up himself since the gremlin in green was no longer sitting on him, rubbing the back of his undercut and looking more than slightly offended. “Also, your hair is back. Nice look.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Do you want help explaining?” Aizawa asked dryly, stepping forwards with his hands in his pockets. “If you can be spared for a round of introductions, that is.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Yeah, sorry.” Aang wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand, still smiling. “These are my friends. The scary one is Toph-” indicating the girl who had tackled him, who simply grinned, unrepentant. “Sokka and Katara-” he nodded to Sokka, who was finally standing up and turned out to be a tall young man with a black-bladed sword slung over his back, and patted Katara on the shoulder, the both of them clad in fur-lined blues. “Suki-” The young woman who had yet to speak calmly waved, closing her fans and setting them at her hip once more, looking extremely at ease in her golden green armor. “And Zuko!” Leaving the scarred man in red with an elegant topknot for last.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Huh. He really </span>
  <em>
    <span>did</span>
  </em>
  <span> look a lot like Todoroki, with his scar.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And then that’s Master Aizawa and Shinsou,” Aang finished, pointing them out to his friends.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Sokka squinted at him and it took all of Hitoshi’s self control to not automatically squint back.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“His hair is </span>
  <em>
    <span>purple,”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Aang’s friend whispered to him, looking suspicious.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The completely deadpan look Aang gave him in return was so reminiscent of Aizawa that Hitoshi was actually impressed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No, </span>
  <em>
    <span>really,</span>
  </em>
  <span> Sokka. I hadn’t noticed.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>From the way all of Aang’s friends blinked at him, clearly no one had expected the lasting repercussions of leaving him alone with someone like Aizawa-sensei for extended periods of time.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I believe you were going to tell them about the spirit problem?” the man in question prompted, wry amusement in his voice.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh! Yeah, right.” Aang spun to face his friends once more, hands clasped behind him. “So we have a world spirit, right? Well, so do they, and they told </span>
  <em>
    <span>our </span>
  </em>
  <span>world spirit that they had a problem and so </span>
  <em>
    <span>our</span>
  </em>
  <span> world spirit grabbed me and sent me through the rift until I ended up here.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Silence.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What?” Zuko finally said, looking completely lost.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Katara pinched the bridge of her nose.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Could you be a </span>
  <em>
    <span>little</span>
  </em>
  <span> more specific, please?” she asked.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What was this we heard about Aang getting murdered?” Hitoshi glanced over his shoulder at Midoriya’s nonplussed voice, catching sight of both him and Todoroki making their way across the lawn towards them. “Kaminari didn’t seem </span>
  <em>
    <span>too</span>
  </em>
  <span> concerned, but still.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What is it with everyone’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>hair</span>
  </em>
  <span> here?” he heard Sokka mutter to Suki, who merely prodded him gently in the ribs with her elbow, a small smile playing over her lips.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“They look normal enough to me.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What do- I hate you, Toph.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I just </span>
  <em>
    <span>did</span>
  </em>
  <span> introductions,” Aang complained, hands on his hips. Midoriya blinked at him before finally catching sight of the newcomers and immediately brightening. Todoroki just frowned slightly in the mildly confused way he always did whenever faced with new people.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Oh hey, your friends finally found you!” Midoriya said. He waved in greeting as he looked them all over with curiosity. “I’m Midoriya Izuku.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Todoroki was fairly quiet during the next set of introductions, though from the way his eyes flickered over to Zuko (who was </span>
  <em>
    <span>unfairly</span>
  </em>
  <span> hot, by the way, Hitoshi was just going to get </span>
  <em>
    <span>that </span>
  </em>
  <span>thought out there), he definitely had noticed the same thing everyone else had.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Midoriya took it all in with a suspicious amount of calm before whipping around once more, a shit-eating grin on his face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So, Todoroki,” he said in a faux-casual voice. “Are you Zuko’s secret long-lost brother or something?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Todoroki stared at him, aghast. Across the way, Zuko had a similar, if much more confused expression. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Hitoshi had to turn away at that point, covering his mouth as he desperately tried not to cry laughing. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Aizawa duck his chin into his scarf to hide his own amusement, and that made it </span>
  <em>
    <span>that</span>
  </em>
  <span> much funnier, in all honesty.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I like him,” Toph said brightly. Zuko just buried his face in his hands. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“As entertaining as this is-” Aizawa glanced at his phone and his expression sobered slightly at whatever he saw there. “If you all don’t mind coming inside… I think both Aang and I have some things we should fill all of you in on.”</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>Shouta hadn’t entirely been sure what to expect.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He carefully eyed the now smaller group, as Shinsou, Midoriya, and Todoroki had bid a momentary goodbye to go watch over Eri, though Hei Bai was already doing that job fairly well all on his own. Aang was explaining the intricacies of the electric kettle to a very attentive Sokka, with an indulgent Suki at his side, as the monk set about making them all tea. Toph was laying down on the floor with both feet firmly planted, telling Zuko about every little thing she noticed that was different (“I’m telling you, Sparky, this guy has </span>
  <em>
    <span>six arms-”</span>
  </em>
  <span>), and Katara was absentmindedly freezing and unfreezing a stream of water from her beaded waterskin, watching them all with a look of fond protectiveness.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Zuko was the oldest, maybe Hawks’ age at most, and Toph appeared to be about as old as Aang was, with Sokka, Suki and Katara falling somewhere in the middle.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And it made Shouta almost… sad.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Because Zuko held himself with learned awareness and Suki noted the exits of every room she walked into, Sokka kept his back to the wall and Toph casually positioned herself in step with him, and above all that Katara kept her eyes on Aang like she was afraid he’d disappear if she looked away.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Child soldiers were no less heartbreaking when they were from another world.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>By the time Aang had delivered the tea to his friends (with a wide variety of mugs, no doubt the product of Yaoyorozu), they had migrated to the attached dorm and settled in on the couch and the floor, quieter now that the initial reunion had finished. Aang was still fiddling with the hem of his robes when Shouta made his own way over, staring at the partially open door that his friends’ soft voices filtered out of.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta gently rested his hand on Aang’s shoulder, prompting the teen to look up at him in a silent question.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He was still pale and exhausted from his brief imprisonment, and not as strong as Shouta would have liked. Still, his injuries had mostly vanished, thanks to the application of some healing quirks.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>At least, the ones on the outside.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“However much you want to tell them,” he said quietly, for only the both of them to hear. “I will respect that. You don’t have to talk about anything you don’t want to.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang’s smile was small and wry in return.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Thank you.” He shrugged his shoulders lightly, tossing a quick glance at his friends. “I… I can’t </span>
  <em>
    <span>lie</span>
  </em>
  <span> to them. Toph would know, anyways. I’m bad at it.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“So long as you’re ok with it.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang nodded.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta followed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The monk hesitated for the barest second before sitting in the chair across from his friends, drumming his heels absentmindedly as everyone’s attention focused on him once more. Shouta slipped in the door and settled against the wall to watch, and to make sure no curious students came looking for a possible disturbance.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ok,” Aang began. “So… a lot of stuff has happened in this world since I saw you guys last.” He ran a hand through his hair, still grown out. “People here could use spirits to make… monsters.” He glanced to Shouta for a moment, who nodded slightly in confirmation. “They called them Nomu. I helped the heroes here deal with them- sending spirits home.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What made this whole… rift thingy?’ Sokka asked, waving a hand. “Is it actually like when Hei Bai was snatching people?” He frowned. “Do they have a Spirit World here?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I…” Aang paused, looking nervous. He licked his lips, clearly trying to carefully order his words. “The rift between our worlds wasn’t an accident. It was General Old Iron who tore through.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The resulting uproar was abrupt, but not surprising.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The combined </span>
  <em>
    <span>“What?”</span>
  </em>
  <span> from Sokka, Katara and Zuko drowned out Suki’s more reserved reaction, who simply narrowed her eyes as a grim look crossed her fine features. Toph straight up slammed her foot into the floor, shaking the entire room a little as she growled.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“That’s not </span>
  <em>
    <span>possible,”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Sokka squawked. “We saw him go back into the sea- I thought that was </span>
  <em>
    <span>it.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Wait, Master Aizawa-” Shouta blinked, looking over to Zuko as the young man spoke, unused to someone other than Aang using that particular title. “-mentioned that this was a spirit problem. So, how many spirits?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hei Bai </span>
  <em>
    <span>is</span>
  </em>
  <span> here,” Katara pointed out, fiddling with a strand of her hair.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He led a lot of other spirits through,” Aang admitted quietly, starting to look uncomfortable. “And not very nice ones. I don’t know the exact number-” he said hurriedly, cutting Zuko off as he opened his mouth to speak once more. “But… a </span>
  <em>
    <span>lot.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Who else came through?” Suki asked, tilting her head. She was frowning slightly, sharp green eyes flickering between both Shouta and Aang. “Spirits we know?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I…” Aang swallowed. “The only other one I was familiar with at first was...” he struggled for a moment, voice just barely cracking. “...was Admiral Zhao.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Zuko let out a sharp hiss of air through his teeth, a quick look of anger filtering through his composure. Sokka and Suki both winced, while Katara looked legitimately murderous.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Everyone jumped as Toph </span>
  <em>
    <span>stomped</span>
  </em>
  <span>, getting to her feet. Her eyes, unseeing as they were, blazed with pure, unadulterated fury.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Twinkletoes, I know you’ve got the whole pacifist thing going on, but I’m gonna throw him off a </span>
  <em>
    <span>mountain</span>
  </em>
  <span>,” she snarled.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“Whoa.”</span>
  </em>
  <span> The monk quickly waved his hands in a negative gesture. “It’s being handled already-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“With </span>
  <em>
    <span>what?</span>
  </em>
  <span> That piece of shit deserves to get </span>
  <em>
    <span>crushed</span>
  </em>
  <span> and-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“Toph,”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Aang snapped. </span>
  <em>
    <span>“Stop it.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And just like that, the room froze.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta felt himself tense slightly despite himself, letting his gaze flicker over the younger people in the room from where he was leaning against the wall.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They looked… confused, hurt, worried. Katara’s hands were over her mouth, eyes wide.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Toph actually </span>
  <em>
    <span>gaped</span>
  </em>
  <span> at her friend as he gritted his teeth, shock filtering through her anger.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“You- your heart rate just jumped through the </span>
  <em>
    <span>roof,” </span>
  </em>
  <span>she said incredulously. “Twin- Aang, what </span>
  <em>
    <span>happened?”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s nothing.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Toph’s brow furrowed at his words, her head tilting slightly as she shifted her bare feet, and Shouta sighed internally as he recalled what Aang had said when he and Tsukauchi had first met.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>Do you have Tremor Sense? My friend Toph uses it, and she can always tell if I’m lying...</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang’s breathing hitched, and Shouta immediately snapped back to the present. He pushed off the wall, making his way forwards to stop by the couch, before placing a careful hand on the teenager’s shoulder.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hey,” he said softly, leaning down to the same level, pointedly not acknowledging the instinctive grab for weapons that Aang’s friends did. “You don’t have to do this. I can take it from here if you need some air.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang nodded after a hesitant moment, and it pulled at Shouta’s heart more than he’d like to admit to see how shaky that simple gesture was. He gathered his feet under him, avoiding the concerned gazes of his friends, and slipped out the door, arms wrapped around himself.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta closed his eyes for a moment, pushing away the well-known anger that was upon him and turned back to the now-silent room of young adults.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Kids. Teenagers.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>They all had the same look of wary resignation as they silently watched him, the same one Aang had carried over a month ago when Shouta had first met him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Their world had not been kind to them.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I mean no disrespect,” Katara started, voice tightly controlled. “But just who are you? Why do you know Aang?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta resisted the urge to cross his arms.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Aang needed someplace to stay while he was here,” he said, deliberately calm. “My partner and I… took him in. I’ve helped him with his mission over the last month or so.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“And he trusts you?” Sokka asked, looking Shouta over with the shrewd and practiced eye of gauging an opponent.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta paused, considering.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’d like to think so,” he finally answered, as honestly as he could manage.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Aang trusts </span>
  <em>
    <span>everyone,”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Toph scoffed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No, he doesn’t,” Zuko rebuked.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His friends quieted, looking to him. Shouta could see Sokka nod slightly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Aang is </span>
  <em>
    <span>nice</span>
  </em>
  <span> to everyone,” the firebender continued, subdued. “But he doesn’t trust them.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta dipped his chin into his scarf, a familiar exhaustion creeping up behind his eyes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Aang is an extraordinary person,” he said, and he thought he could see their guards relax a notch from his sincerity. “I’m glad he has friends like you that he can depend on.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What did Zhao do to him?” Zuko asked quietly. Shouta looked at him and was resigned to see a terrible amount of knowing in his eyes.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He wondered just how Zuko got his scar.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“He tortured him,” Shouta said as carefully as he could, because there was no good way to share that type of information. “He knew about his past experiences with both lightning and fire and he... took advantage of that.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Katara made a truly pitiful sound, both heartbroken and furious, holding back the tears that dampened her lashes. Toph gripped her hand tightly, expression terrifyingly blank.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Where is he now?” Sokka asked, his voice dropped down to a simmering growl. Beside him, Suki nodded shortly, knuckles white over her fans.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“The police and the underground heroes in the area are after him at the moment.” Shouta’s gaze flicked to Zuko for a moment, and the smoke wisping from tightly clenched fists. “He’s sharing a body with a villain from this world. Both are going to be brought to justice.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We’re going to help,” Zuko said, his flat tone leaving no room for argument.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’ll let them know. Tempest is in charge of the area- she’s fairly flexible when it comes to teaming up, so it shouldn’t be a problem.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His phone buzzed.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta blinked, stepping back a moment with a raised finger to let them talk amongst themselves, low and furious voices jumbling behind him as he slipped out for a moment. He swiped his phone open to accept the call, his brow furrowing as he noted Tsukuachi as the caller. Taking another glance through the door, he turned slightly, bringing the phone to his ear.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Detective?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Eraserhead.” Shouta automatically stiffened at Tsukuachi’s crisp voice. “You should probably come by the station. It’s about Boil.”</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0031"><h2>31. Closing That Door</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>light at the end of the tunnel, lads...</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>Aang was a lot quieter now.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It worried Zuko, honestly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>His friends in this world also seemed to understand the tenuous balance Aang appeared to currently be holding on to, and were purposefully relaxed around him, talking to Zuko’s group and making conversation.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But still. Aang had dark circles from lack of sleep, he stiffened if you approached him from behind, and he…</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Well. Zuko knew what deliberate firebending burns looked like.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>At least they’d all found him. He’d missed him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Huh. Looked like Toph was challenging some of the students to arm wrestling. She had two challengers so far, the boy with bright red hair and the sharp scowly one.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>That</span>
  </em>
  <span> wouldn’t end well.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It would probably be entertaining, though.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>As he watched, Aang was roped into it by the combined efforts of Toph and the boy named Kirishima, a small smile making its way across his face once more.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And Zuko breathed out, his shoulders relaxing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Yeah, Aang was going to be fine.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>After all, he had all of them with him.</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>“I am going to be </span>
  <em>
    <span>entirely </span>
  </em>
  <span>honest,” Shouta said, a touch incredulously. “I expected this to be more of a problem.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Manual grinned, swiping a thumb across the smear of blood slowly scabbing on his cheek.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Sorry to disappoint?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta shot him a wry look.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’ll take it.’</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>From inside the specialized holding cell, Boil scowled silently, his hands cuffed in front of him inside heavy duty gauntlets. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“First day back on the job.” Manual chuckled under his breath, stretching out his arms. “Could be worse.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Apparently karma </span>
  <em>
    <span>was</span>
  </em>
  <span> a thing after all. Boil had attempted to retreat back to Hosu, seeing as it was an easy city to get lost in, and well… he’d had luck there before.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Seemed his luck had run out.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta had taken a look at the footage from Boil’s take down, captured on a local security camera. It was grainy quality, but clear enough.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And he was self-aware enough to admit that watching Manual drop what looked like an entire water tower on the villain was… </span>
  <em>
    <span>satisfying.</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“What now?” Manual asked, tilting his head to look at Shouta. “I got the basics of this… </span>
  <em>
    <span>whole</span>
  </em>
  <span> situation from Detective Tsukauchi but- that’s a little outside my area of expertise, honestly.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It is for everyone,” Shouta snorted. “As for now…” He jerked his thumb at the cell as he turned away from the glowering, fuming villain. “We put both of them in prison for a </span>
  <em>
    <span>very</span>
  </em>
  <span> long time.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Good,” Manual hummed. “Glad to be of service.” </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He put his helmet back on as he left, nodding briefly in greeting to Tsukuachi as the man entered the room.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The detective looked exhausted, which was understandable given the absolute </span>
  <em>
    <span>madness</span>
  </em>
  <span> all of them had been through in just this last week alone. He slung his discarded trenchcoat over the nearest chair with a bit-off yawn, before joining Shouta where he was standing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Hello, Eraserhead.” Tsukauchi rolled his shoulders, wincing slightly. Probably hadn’t gotten any sleep lately. “Thank you for coming on such short notice.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“This was important. It was no trouble. How is…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Shirakumo?” Tsukuachi’s eyes softened. “He’s still under observation in the hospital. Under guard, but that’s more of a precaution than anything else.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Shouta nodded tightly, swallowing.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Thank you,” he said honestly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Of course.” Tsukauchi crossed his arms, turning just enough to take a look at the insulated holding cell. “So. Last spirit.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Except for Hei Bai,” Shouta pointed out.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Except for Hei Bai,” the detective acknowledged. “Though I don’t think he’ll protest returning home. </span>
  <em>
    <span>This</span>
  </em>
  <span> one, however…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Is going to fight it, yes.” Shouta scowled. “And we have to get Aang in here to carry it out in the first place.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Tsukuachi eyed him cautiously.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Believe me, I don’t enjoy the thought of putting a kidnap victim in contact with their captor any more than you do,” he said quietly. “If there was any other way…”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No.” Shouta bit back a sigh. “You’re right.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Tsukauchi nodded.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s time for us to end this.”</span>
</p>
<hr/>
<p>
  <span>Aang hated how much his hands were shaking.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Are you-”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <em>
    <span>“Yes,</span>
  </em>
  <span> Sokka, I’m sure,” Aang snapped. He glanced up into Sokka’s clear, concerned gaze and sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “I… sorry.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“It’s all right,” Sokka said quietly, patting his shoulder. “It’s ok if you’re not ok with everything yet. We can wait.” He looked back at the rest of the group. “Right, guys?”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Katara bit her lip and nodded.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We </span>
  <em>
    <span>are</span>
  </em>
  <span> upset,” she admitted, and Toph scowled in agreement. “But if this is what you want to do, we’ll stand by it.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We trust you,” Zuko said simply, prompting a warmth to bloom in Aang’s chest that he hadn’t even known there had been an absence of.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Thanks, guys,” he whispered, feeling a prickle at the corners of his eyes. Katara pulled him into a hug, squeezing lightly.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“We’ll be right here,” she promised as she drew back. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Toph punched him in the arm.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Go get ‘em, Twinkletoes.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang smiled, scrubbing at his eyes, before turning back to the inner rooms of Tsukauchi’s precinct, quietly opening the door and heading inside.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Master Aizawa was there, as always, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed and the bottom half of his face hidden in his scarf. He glanced up once Aang moved into view, automatically doing a once-over scan before looking him in the eye.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Ready?” he asked.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“As I’m ever going to be.” Aang chewed on his bottom lip, linking his hands behind his back.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Master Aizawa’s hand was a warm, solid weight on his shoulder.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Let’s go,” he said simply. “The detective is waiting for us.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Tsukauchi gave Aang a nod of greeting as they approached, letting the two of them into the holding cells.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And there was Boil.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Well…” Iwayama got to his feet, seemingly unconcerned with the massive metal cuffs the entirety of his hands were encased in. “The kid lives.” A short grin flashed. “I </span>
  <em>
    <span>had</span>
  </em>
  <span> wondered.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Beside Aang, Master Aizawa’s hair briefly wafted over his shoulders before falling still once more. Aang took a deep breath, stepping forwards towards the cell, but keeping back from the door still.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m fine,”  he said in a clipped tone. “The only thing I’m here for is to send Zhao back to the Spirit World.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Really?” Iwayama’s eyes glittered. He abruptly lunged for the bars in what Aang realized in retrospect was merely a feint, but he could help it.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He flinched.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Zhao drew back, a smug grin splitting his host’s features.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Little </span>
  <em>
    <span>jumpy</span>
  </em>
  <span> there, Avatar?” he purred in satisfaction.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang forced his hands back down to his sides, gripping tight at his robes to hide that </span>
  <em>
    <span>damned</span>
  </em>
  <span> tremor that was running through him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“Step back,” he heard Master Aizawa say in a low, dangerous voice. The villain’s eyes flickered from him to Aang to the door, clearly weighing his options before grudgingly retreating a few steps as Master Aizawa unlocked the cell door with a card swipe.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The moment there was space, Iwayama lunged back towards the door, to promptly become ensnared in the hero’s capture weapon. It tightened around him brutally, prompting a wince as it immobilized him in moments, probably uncomfortably tight given the dark look on Master Aizawa’s face.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I’m ok,” Aang quickly said as he stepped in after him, not sure why he was making excuses but falling back on that habit anyways. “Just… hold him, please.”</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Master Aizawa’s eyes burned under the scarlet of his quirk, but he simply nodded, holding his capture weapon taut.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang grit his teeth and stepped forwards, eyeing the imprisoned spirit and the villain who hosted him.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>He looked… smaller, like this.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The man growled as Aang came close, still struggling against his bonds.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“I know that look in your eyes, Avatar,” Zhao sneered, vicious. “But go ahead.</span>
  <em>
    <span> Lie</span>
  </em>
  <span> to me. Tell me you aren’t scared </span>
  <em>
    <span>witless.”</span>
  </em>
  
</p>
<p>
  <span>Aang breathed out, closing his eyes. After a moment, he opened them again, to stare into the sickly golden irises that burned with the spirit’s presence.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>“No,” he said quietly. “I </span>
  <em>
    <span>am </span>
  </em>
  <span>scared.” He lifted his chin, determined. “Just not of </span>
  <em>
    <span>you.”</span>
  </em>
</p>
<p>
  <span>And he drew on his ki, bringing it forward in a swell of blue light, to press his hands to Iwayama’s forehead and sternum.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The man’s head tipped backwards in surprise, his eyes flashing blank as a low wail started up, resonating sickly and brassy in the enclosed space. </span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Zhao fought, because even at the end, he wouldn’t admit his failings.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>But Aang was more than he’d been before, and he was stronger than he’d ever been.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Something inside the spirit </span>
  <em>
    <span>cracked</span>
  </em>
  <span> as it was forced back through the rift it had crept through and Aang </span>
  <em>
    <span>ripped </span>
  </em>
  <span> it closed once more, sealing it away.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>The wail slowly faded with the light and Aang dropped his hands, exhausted, but feeling lighter than he had in weeks. Iwayama slid to the ground senseless, but alive. Master Aizawa slackened his weapon, wrapping it around his shoulders once more, and gripped Aang’s shoulder in silent approval.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Zhao was gone.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>Finally.</span>
</p>
<p>
  <span>It was over.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0032"><h2>32. Exit, Pursued By Bear</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>As all things do, Aang’s time in the world of quirks and heroes had come to an end.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was a pleased humming in the back of his mind as the World Spirit took satisfaction in the reordering of their world, free of outside influences and troubles.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Thank you,</span>
  </em>
  <span> came the whisper, deep and methodical and resonating with millions of voices. </span>
  <em>
    <span>You have given me much. I am grateful.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>It was the least I could do,</span>
  </em>
  <span> Aang replied honestly. </span>
  <em>
    <span>I learned so much in return.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>A low, thoughtful rumble.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Both our worlds are tied by fate, now,</span>
  </em>
  <span> the World Spirit mused. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Not even I know what is to come.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang blinked, returning himself to the moment as the presence faded from the back of his mind.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hey.” Sokka nudged him. “You ok?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang smiled up at him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Yeah.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He felt more like himself than he had in awhile, back in his robes and cleanly shaven once more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A familiar grin flashed in return.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Go on.” Sokka jerked his head in the direction of the students. “Say goodbye to your friends.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang patted his taller friend on the shoulder before dashing off to group with Class 1-A one last time.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Saying goodbye was… harder than he’d expected.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It hadn’t been long, but these people… these </span>
  <em>
    <span>friends,</span>
  </em>
  <span> had given him so much.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>A lot of the students wanted hugs, Kaminari and Iida squeezing the tightest, though Kirishima also asked for an earthbender handshake that he’d apparently learned from Toph. Hagakure and Uraraka both sniffled into his shoulder, while Tokoyami nodded gravely, Dark Shadow doing a mimicry of the pose from over his shoulder. Bakugou just went </span>
  <em>
    <span>tch</span>
  </em>
  <span> and punched him in the shoulder, muttering something about dumbass airbenders, though Aang supposed that was his own form of goodbye. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>And then he was with the three students he’d started this mad journey with.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Are we ever going to get to see you again?” Midoriya asked hesitantly, green eyes wide.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’m not sure,” Aang admitted, fiddling with the staff on his hip that Mei had insisted he keep “as a going-away present.” “The spirits… still don’t tell me a lot.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Guess you can’t exactly Zoom call from a different dimension, huh?” Shinsou said dryly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You will be missed,” Todoroki said with such serious honesty that it made his friends all smile sadly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll miss you guys too,” Aang said softly, clapping them on the shoulders. “Spirits willing, this isn’t goodbye forever.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Group hug,” Midoriya sniffed, ignoring Shinsou’s squawk of protest and Todoroki’s general confusion as he insistently dragged all four of them in for the hug.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang laughed before they separated once more.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Now shoo.” Shinsou waved towards where Aang’s last and possibly most difficult goodbyes were standing. “Don’t keep them waiting.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And Aang walked on over.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eri threw herself into his arms the moment he came close, prompting him to drop to his knee with a startled laugh as her arms wrapped around him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You’re leaving forever?” she asked quietly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It isn’t forever,” Aang tried to reassure her, looking her in the eyes. “I doubt even the World Spirits could stop Hei Bai from coming back whenever he wanted, anyways.” He tapped her nose gently. “And I’m sure he’ll let me tag along if I ask nicely.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Hesitant, oh so small, but heart-wrenchingly real, a smile lifted the corners of Eri’s mouth.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang hugged her again, blinking back the prickling in his eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then he stood, to look at Masters Aizawa and Yamada.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s been great, kiddo,” Master Yamada said, squeezing him in a quick hug. “You can crash on our futon anytime you make it back this way. The cats will be waiting for you.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang laughed despite himself, the sound coming out a bit watery. The hero seemed to understand, as his smile softened and he patted him on the back gently before pulling back to let his husband have his time.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Dark eyes gave Aang a preemptive once-over that had become so familiar over the weeks. Master Aizawa huffed out a small sigh before squeezing Aang’s shoulder lightly, looking fond.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“You did good, kid.” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Oh, Aang wasn’t going to let him leave this at </span>
  <em>
    <span>that.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>He threw his arms around the teacher just as Eri had done to him, trying to convey everything he didn’t know how to say out loud in that one, simple embrace.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Thank you,” he murmured, feeling the first tear drip down his face. “For </span>
  <em>
    <span>everything.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Hesitant but solid all the same, Master Aizawa hugged him back.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I’ll be here when you come back,” he said quietly, his voice raspy with contained emotion. “Make sure you do.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And so, they all said goodbye.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang stood with his friends, together, on a world not their own. Taking a deep breath, Aang stretched his arms wide, letting his ki guide him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Soft, shimmering strands of light coiled between his fingers as he pulled the fabric of the world aside.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Allowing him to step through.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>And head home.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>...</span>
</p><p>
  <span>As it is wont to do, time passed.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>...</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>“Does anyone else feel weird?” Izuku asked from where he was laying on the floor, frowning up at the ceiling. Tsuyu cocked her head quizzically, staring down at him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What kind of weird?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I don’t know.” Izuku sat up, rubbing his chin. “More… collected? Focused?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So, not sleep deprived?” Shinsou asked, raising an eyebrow at him from over his laptop.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Midoriya, has your sleeping schedule become unhealthy?” </span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s fine, Iida.” Izuku waved Iida off, ignoring how both Shinsou and Uraraka snickered. “I’m just a little mixed up, I guess.” He got to his feet, brushing off his shorts as he considered the merits of getting another cup of tea. The buzzing that had been in the back of head all day was dying down, leaving him… restless, for lack of a better word. He’d started to pay more attention to it once Aang had gone, with less things to focus on, he’d turned his attention inwards for once.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>You’re close.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Close to what?</span>
  </em>
  <span> Izuku returned absentmindedly. Then he </span>
  <em>
    <span>startled</span>
  </em>
  <span> as the whisper in his head chuckled, present and kind and shockingly </span>
  <em>
    <span>clear.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Good job, kiddo. Here’s lesson number one.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>His feet left the ground.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Izuku squeaked, windmilling his arms frantically as his friends all stared at him.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Guys?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Midoriya?” Todoroki, with his rather endearing tendency to state the obvious, tilted his head to look up at him. “You’re Floating.”</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>“Took you long enough,” Emi complained.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I told you I’d give you answers,” Shouta pointed out. “I didn’t specify </span>
  <em>
    <span>when.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“Hmph. Well, I’ve got the wine,” Emi said cheekily, setting three ridiculous bottles on the table with a </span>
  <em>
    <span>thunk.</span>
  </em>
  <span> “Think this is enough?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouta snorted, taking a bottle of his own out of his bag.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I think you’re going to end up needing the harder stuff,” he said, placing the dark, squat bottle on the table with much more care.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Emi raised an eyebrow, but obligingly grabbed the nearest glass, uncorking the wine.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ok, ok, I’m comfortable.” She leaned back in her chair, raising her wine glass in toast. “Cheers. Tell me your story, oh noble hero.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Shouta rolled his eyes as he poured himself a modest amount.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Alright.” He heaved out a breath, settling in. “So I was on patrol, usual hours, when I got a call that an invisible villain and a teenager in orange robes were destroying a good portion of the downtown area…”</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>Hei Bai had </span>
  <em>
    <span>told</span>
  </em>
  <span> him that there would be worldly repercussions for them with so much spiritual energy getting released back into their world…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But Aang never could have expected </span>
  <em>
    <span>this.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>“It just happened out of nowhere,” Mai said, in the deceptively composed tone she always bore. “We started getting reports of it.” She waved a hand, thankfully free of knives. “All over the world.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>From where he was settled in the corner of the room, Hei Bai snorted with satisfaction.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“It’s </span>
  <em>
    <span>so cool!”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Ty Lee squeaked in excitement, flipping backwards to extend her arms and show off-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The swirl of air that surrounded her limbs, gently floating her back to earth in defiance of gravity.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“What the </span>
  <em>
    <span>fuck,”</span>
  </em>
  <span> Toph said in disbelief, and for once, Aang agreed with her.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“The airbenders are back,” he whispered hoarsely. “Ty Lee, you’re an </span>
  <em>
    <span>airbender.”</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Deep within him, the World Spirit hummed gently, pleased that Balance had been returned to the world.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The airbender resurgence had come.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was time for change.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p>
  <span>The streets had turned into a festival.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>It was madness, but so </span>
  <em>
    <span>joyful</span>
  </em>
  <span> and vibrant that it flowed like wind between everyone, laughing and bright and </span>
  <em>
    <span>new.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>New airbenders ran back and forth with their families, taking glee in their new element, swirling around Aang and his friends as they traveled through the crowds, to partake in this mad celebration.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Katara’s eyes flashed bright, and Sokka and Suki walked hand in hand. A rare pair of smiles showed themselves on Zuko and Mai as they walked, Ty Lee and Toph both taking to who-knows-where to sow their own particular seed of chaos as Aang just </span>
  <em>
    <span>took everything in.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>In the midst of all of that, a small hand gently tugged on the hem of his robes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang looked down in mild surprise to see a young child, maybe five or so, dressed in Fire Nation colors. He quickly glanced around.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Where are your parents?” he asked softly, kneeling down to his level. The boy pointed to a nearby stall.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Fire Flakes,” he said, calm. He cocked his head, taking Aang in from head to toe. “Mommy says you’re the Avatar.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang chuckled quietly.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I guess I do stick out a bit, don’t I. What can I do for you?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The boy stuck out his hand, and a small puff of air flew up, ruffling his clothes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Daddy said it's a good thing,” he explained, as Aang grinned in delight. “He says that it means balance is back.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Your Dad sounds real smart,” Aang returned, unable to stop the laugh from bubbling out of him. The child raised his arms in a silent request and Aang obliged with a fond smile, picking him up and resting him on his hip.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Well, it’s nice to meet you,” he said cheerfully. “ What’s your name, little one?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Gray-blue eyes peered out from beneath fine black fringe.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My name is Gyatso,” the boy said, with the innocent solemnity only a child had. He blinked at Aang as his breath caught in his throat, young and curious. “Will you teach me how to airbend?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Aang looked to the sky, feeling his heart swell in his chest, but he smiled wide, even as dampness prickled from his eyes.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Because for the first time in a </span>
  <em>
    <span>long</span>
  </em>
  <span> time-</span>
</p><p>
  <span>There was hope.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“I would be happy to.”</span>
</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>And that's a wrap, folks.<br/>Holy shit, you guys. I started this on a whim and a bad pun because my discord group encouraged me to, and the response to this has been incredible. You've all resparked my joy and interest in writing fanfiction, and I am so, so grateful.<br/>To every commenter, reader, kudos leaver, lurker, thank you all so much for sticking around with me. You've all made quarantine that much more enjoyable, and I hope I brought you guys joy too.<br/>I see more writing in my immediate future!<br/>Gratefully,<br/>WriterGreenReads</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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